Stop Pretending
by Ariels Lament
Summary: Five times Penny almost discovered Dr. Horrible, and one time she did. Takes a different turn of events from the movie, but it's still in there. Somewhere. Ch 6: In which Penny...pft! Oh, come on. Like you don't already know what happens. ;P
1. Van

_**A/N: Yeah...so I haven't written in months and all of a sudden this idea happened. I can't keep myself from writing it. But I'm happy it came up. Even if there likely aren't many people skulking about this wing of ffdotnet Pardon the grammar. If I think about it too much things never get written, so I tried very hard not to. Anywho, I hope someone out there enjoys this even part as much as I did. :)**_

**_So, without any further ado. Five times Penny almost discovered Dr. Horrible, and the one time she did. Takes a bit of a different turn than the movie (obviously), with an unfortunate lack of singing and a lot more character-y...stuff._**

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Chapter 1: Van

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Frowning, clipboard in hand, Penny walked back along the alleyway. As far as first impressions went, that one had certainly been her worst by far. And she couldn't help but feel disappointed at the lackluster encounter. She turned her head to look back, but he—Billy—was already gone. Penny sighed and move on.

It figured. She'd seen him around, Wednesdays and Saturdays as he'd said. She thought he was pretty cute. Yet they'd never spoken before today. Although he had startled her yesterday with a mumbled something or other about the air. She'd just smiled, unsure how to follow up with that and thinking he might be shy, that maybe he didn't quite know how to break the ice; but after today, both with his attention constantly veering from the phone in his hand to something out by a van in the distance, and his derisive dismissal of her endeavor, the red head had decided he was a bit of a jerk.

As for the fish metaphor? Well that was another story completely.

When Penny had recognized him from the laundromat, she'd had some delusions about the two of them hitting it off, maybe making plans to meet somewhere after she was finished volunteering, get to know each other, and maybe, just maybe, one day in the forseeable future, she would find herself swept off of her feet. For real this time.

Clearly he held no interest in taking part in her ridiculous fantasies.

Oh well. She was busy anyways. There was no time for happy endings for those fighting to right the wrongs in the world. It was a mess, after all.

So immersed in her own little world was Penny, that she almost missed the shouts of terror and the crashing of trash cans sounding behind her.

She couldn't move, couldn't even force a scream from her throat as her end barreled ahead full-force to meet her. Not that it mattered, anyway. By the time her brain caught up with what she was seeing, it was already too late. It was over. She would pass along unnoticed, unwanted, and with only a single signature on her petition to show for all her efforts.

Penny's eyes squeezed shut at the last moment. She heard the impact, the loud, dull thunk, coupled with a sharp cracking of the windshield. She felt the air coursing through her hair as her body jerked violently about, and the sudden halt as she landed belly side down...somewhere. There was a squealing sound followed by another crash before the humming of the motor died away into a steamy hiss.

'Dying isn't so bad,' she thought vaguely, still blissfully unaware of the pain her mutilated body must be going through. She must be in shock. Death was turning out to be an unexpectedly pleasant experience. It was very warm. Very soft. Very comforting. And it even smelled of her favorite, fresh scented fabric softener.

Wait. What? That couldn't be right.

Penny's eyes snapped open at once, and a bright white assaulted the entirety of her vision. Her eyelids fluttered, trying to block out the light that seared her overwhelmed senses, but to no avail. It wasn't a light, she found, once her sight sharpened at bit. It was cloth. Intrigued, and still overtaken with shock, Penny unpinned a hand from between herself and the white whatever-it-was to let her fingers skitter reassuringly over the material. It was thick, a bit course, but most importantly it was real. She took a steadying breath and a fistful of the fabric and chanced the opportunity to scope out her surroundings.

Large blotches shrouded her vision, keeping Penny from focusing on more than one detail at a time, but there was a white clad arm curled tightly about her shoulders, a familiar looking phone with some odd pictures she couldn't make out on it, and the steaming, badly beaten in front side of a van.

"You idiot!" an angry voice above her spat out. The stunned red head started at the unexpected sound, and she clenched the cloth more tightly. Looking up, one detail at a time, she could make out messy, dirty blond hair, and a large pair of welding goggles masking her savior's eyes. And he was snarling.

"Dr. Horrible, I should have known you were behind this." This time another voice. Blinking furiously to get the spots out of her eyes, Penny squinted toward the van. It kind of worked. His was a familiar face, in any case. One she had seen on the news countless times before. Captain...something. Her numbed mind didn't feel quite up to the task of remembering, but he was the city hero, that much it afforded her.

"You almost killed her!"

"I remember it differently."

All too soon, Penny's pillar of warmth was gone and her fist filled with nothing but air. She hadn't noticed her legs quaking beneath her until they refused to hold her, abandoning her to her knees on the cold, hard pavement.

Oh look. Those were her pamphlets scattered about everywhere. And that was the metal clip to her clipboard. That must have been what she heard collide with the van. Her eyes trailed after several blank petition forms, the form with one lonely name, and then settled on a single white boot. The splotches were fading away now and Penny watched dumbly as the man in white stomped over to the hero, ranting all the while.

"Is that really the _only_ way you know how to deal with anything? Just bash it in without any regard for the consequences? That's reckless and unprofessional and just plain...uncreative! Those coordinates were preset! Once the van started, it would have stopped here no matter what! _This_," he waved the phone in the frowning hero's face and pointed to something above the van, "was to make sure that nothing like_ that_," he gestured toward Penny, "would happen. But you ruined it, and I couldn't control it, and someone could have been hurt, and it's _all—"_ he jabbed an angry finger into the larger man's chest "—_your—_" jab "—_fault!_" Jab. Then the doctor backed down, somewhat deflated, and added miserably, "Not to mention the Wonderflonium must have bounced; it's probably useless by now..."

The city hero eyed the the shorter man with consideration for a moment before shrugging it off.

"You make a valid point, Doctor."

"Exactly, so nex—" but the threat-to-be was cut off by choking noises and Penny noticed that the hero had the blond by the throat.

"But that's not _all_ I can do! Right, so where were we?"

The captain smirked down at the struggling man, and Penny grasped for the railing behind her. She had to get to her feet. She had to put a stop to this. Somehow.

"It's curtains for you, Dr. Horrible. Lacey, gently wafting curtains."

The doctor stopped struggling for a moment and the captain's eyes flicked behind all the white to lock on Penny's own. He smiled, and she really couldn't help but be captivated by it. Maybe it was just the shock, but no one ever noticed quiet little Penny. And now she was here, in an abandoned alleyway with a smoking van and two notable men who had gone out of their ways to rescue her from it.

"Don't worry, Miss, I'll have this villain locked away soon enough. He won't be hurting you again."

"Don't," she started weakly, wrenching her gaze from dazzling smile to struggling villain. "He saved my life."

The hero frowned, confused at her words, but when Penny's legs gave way again, sending her sliding down the metal railing, he tossed the gasping, oxygen deprived man into the side of the van in favor of aiding her. Later, bundled in the sturdy arms of who she now knew was Captain Hammer, Penny noticed the rear doors of the van swinging open in the wind, but Dr. Horrible was no where to be found.

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_**I don't know about you, but I just love the thought of the Doc ragging Hammer on how to do his job.**_

_**Feedback muchly appreciated but not required.**_

_**Also, next chapter's way longer. :)**_


	2. Bruise

_**A/N: Gah! D:**_

_**I went through the chapters to correct some spelling/typing errors and somehow...deleted all my ramblings for this one? Bummer...I have no idea what I even went on about for this one. **_

_**Oh well...Enjoy? :/**_

**_. _**

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Chapter 2: Bruise

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The next Wednesday forced Penny to seriously re-evaluate her impression of Billy.

She'd been sorting through her laundry, lost in the happenings of the last several days. Her near miss at death had left her with a new vigor for life. Or at least it had once she'd broken down in her apartment later that night when everything caught up to her.

She never wanted to feel like she had in that split second before her rescue: pathetic, worthless, resigned. If Penny ever had to face death like that again (and she desperately hoped she never would) she wanted to go out knowing that her life had made even the slightest difference in the world, that she would have no regrets. Mostly she hoped to think enough of herself to get out of the way without anyone's aid, but that one sounded a little pathetic to her, so Penny stuck with the first two ideas, figuring that if she managed them well enough, the third one might turn out to be a given.

The first goal was proving to be tricky as ever. No one really seemed to be interested in helping the less fortunate. But by taking a leaf out of those little girls' books and staking out at the entrances of major convenience stores in the area, Penny had already managed a little over a page of signatures since yesterday. Only so many people could brush passed her so callously before a caring hand offered to hear her out. It was sad, even to her, how slow progress was going, but it was a start, and she intended for it to only get better from there.

As for the second goal, well, Penny was trying to work through that one still, too. It was probably the main reason she'd accepted when Captain Hammer had asked her out. Having almost just died, refusing such an offer seemed plain dumb, even if a voice in the back of her mind did nag her that something was completely messed up about the whole thing. But Penny had dreams for a happy ending, and beginning that soul-searching Sunday afternoon, she was determined to find it at whatever cost. The man who had come to her rescue (well, the one who had gotten the credit for it anyway) seemed as good a place to start as any.

At first she found him kind of cheesy; it was the words he spoke, the way he spoke them, and how every movement he made seemed to be perfectly posed and camera ready. But he had his sweet moments, too. When the flashing lights and tactless reporters had become too much for the overwhelmed Penny, Captain Hammer had taken charge, requesting that they give her a second to catch her breath, that she had just been through a most horrible ordeal and needed time to cope (cheesy, yes, but sweet nonetheless). Then he'd asked her to dinner and, winning smile in place, even agreed when she'd suggested the homeless shelter, that she thought his appearance there might help inspire hope in it's occupants (alright, so maybe she could be a bit cheesy, as well). There she'd pitched her spiel; he'd listened to her talk, smiled politely, and made her laugh. The next day he'd unexpectedly come by to check on her and had ended up taking her out again.

It was a nice feeling. One she hadn't felt in a long time. And as far as Penny was concerned, it was worth all the cheese the world could lob at her.

Then something clunked heavily onto the washer next to hers. The red head blinked herself back to reality and found herself prey to some nervous ramblings spouting off from beside her. The words were fast and low and Penny could only make out bits and pieces of them: "sorry", "other day", "preoccupied", and "kind of a jerk". It all sounded pretty familiar. Penny looked over.

"Oh! Billy. Hi."

He eyed her a bit apprehensively, clearly wondering if he'd made a mistake coming to talk to her. The words she _had_ heard clicked together to form some kind of meaning in her mind, and she shook her head to clear it. "Sorry," she spluttered. "I was...thinking. But no. It's fine. The other day was just—well—I have a knack for horrible timing."

Penny offered an apologetic shrug, and Billy responded with a shy smile. He had a very nice smile. They fell silent, and Penny watched as he sorted through his own clothes, an almost painfully plain assortment of hoodies, T-shirts, and jeans. He reached out to a white paper sack next to his basket, but paused, tapping it lightly with the tips of his fingers before returning to his clothes. The awkward silence stretched on for several minutes before she settled on something to say.

"So, Billy, I wanted to ask—"

"Yes?" he said a bit over eagerly, cutting her off mid sentence, and Penny wondered that he had been as lost on what to say as she. He seemed to notice his hasty response, as well, though, and back tracked. "I—sorry...you were saying?"

"Um. You...wouldn't mind signing for the building again, would you? There was an...accident with my papers Sunday, and I've kind of had to start all over."

Billy froze at her words and stared, searching her face. She looked away, unable to hold his gaze, and fumbled with the loose quarters atop her machine, slipping what she needed into the coin slot.

"Of course not. I'd love to." His voice was soft and genuine and it brought a smile to Penny's lips.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

She peered up at him from beneath her lashes to find him smiling back down at her. They stayed that way for a time, just smiling at one another, before Billy's nervous blinking took over. He cleared his throat, letting the washer's lid fall perhaps a little more forcefully than he'd intended.

"Yeah, so, about that." He hopped up onto his washer, extending a hand to the paper bag again, but falling short of it as he continued to speak. "How was your weekend? Any luck on the hunt for wild signatures?"

Penny almost laughed at that. It was actually a pretty accurate description of what she was doing.

"Oh no. I haven't been able to pick that back up until yesterday. Sunday I...um..." She leaned back against the whirring machine, her arms wrapped around herself, and stared at the floor.

She hadn't bothered mentioning her accident to anyone, and despite it having a small insert in the paper, no one had asked her about it either. Penny didn't want to come off as looking for pity—and she wasn't—but it would be nice to know that someone might talk her through the most traumatic experience of her life. Even if that someone was a complete stranger that up until about fifteen minutes ago she had thought to be an utter jerk.

She had no family, and friends were few and far between. Sure, she got along with people well enough—the people at Caring Hands loved her—but at times she felt that had more to do with her being their most active (and least expensive) source of help. She'd found over time that she tended to gravitate toward those who would take advantage of her kindness, so much of her social interaction consisted of superficial chatter with mere acquaintances and talking at people who passed her by, uninterested in what she had to say. It wasn't very satisfying, but it was better than complete estrangement. What was the point of trying to help humanity if one was just going to ignore them?

Penny smoothed a bit of hair behind her ear and pressed on. "Well. I was almost hit by a van, actually." She shrugged as if it were no big deal. As if people faced certain death on a daily basis and just went on about their business like nothing had happened. She could already feel the pricking of tears at the corners of her eyes, which was another reason she didn't talk about it. Voicing it into words always seemed to make it worse. _Pull yourself together, Penny,_ she mentally chided herself. _You are _**_not_**_ going to break down in front of a random stranger turned almost acquaintance you've only talked to twice!"_

"Oh, wow." Billy's voice was sympathetic and kind, and that in and of itself was almost enough to send Penny over the edge and into a fit of tears. "That must have been terrifying. Are you okay?"

"Yes. It was," she answered thickly, unable to hold back a slight sniffle at the memory. The pools in her eyes flowed over and Penny tried as unscrupulously as she could manage to wipe away at a stray tear before Billy noticed it. His arm hovered in her periphery before pulling back, and the crinkling of a paper bag filled her ears instead.

"Hey, that's weird..." Billy was turned away from her and Penny took the opportunity to dry her face more effectively.

"Hmm?"

"I ordered one frozen yogurt and they gave me two. You don't happen to like frozen yogurt, do you?" He eyed her from over his shoulder, and she shook her head with a shrug.

"I love it.

Billy beamed.

"You're kidding! What a crazy, random happenstance. Here."

"Thank you." Penny said weakly, throat still burning, and her heart clenched at his kindness. The tears threatened to spill again as she took the styrofoam cup held up to her face. She sniffed again and he handed over a spork, and the whole situation was just so ridiculous, and unexpected, and unlike any she'd ever been in before, that Penny laughed.

"I'm sorry, Billy," she started, not bothering to hide it as she wiped at her eyes again. "You must think I'm so stupid, standing here in the middle of a laundromat, crying to someone I've only met twice."

"No, no, no!" he urged. "I mean, after a weekend like that, it could happen to anyone."

"Well," she hesitated and took a bite of frozen yogurt. Maybe she shouldn't mention it at all, but she was already this far along, and talking to Billy was nice. "It wasn't all bad."

"Yeah?"

"I got a date out of it."

Billy shifted, and a quarter fell from his washer. Penny knelt to retrieve it for him.

"Get right out of town, how'd that go?"

She tapped the spork to her chin, trying to think of the words for it. "Well, he's a really good looking guy. I thought he was kind of cheesy at first—"

"Trust your instincts."

"—_but_," she smiled and wondered if he'd be saying that if he knew her first impression of him. "He turned out to be pretty sweet. Sometimes people are layered like that. Where there's something totally different underneath than what's on the surface." Kind of like how she was here, talking to Billy, despite their rather disappointing meeting on Sunday.

"And sometimes there's a third, even deeper level, and that one's the same as the top surface one."

Penny blinked. "Huh?"

"Like with pie. So will you see him again?"

He was full of all kinds of interesting metaphors, wasn't he? She looked away with a slight smile and dug back into her frozen yogurt. "You know...I think I will."

"Oh? That...that's great..."

"Um. Billy?"

"Yeah?" The single syllable sounded almost strained.

Penny had meant to tell him that he was driving the spork into his leg, but when her eyes flicked up to his face, the way his head was tilted and in this light, she could make out something she hadn't noticed before.

"What happened to your neck?"

It was his turn to blink in confusion as she squinted at him from over her cup.

"Your throat," Penny said, holding a hand gently around her own, "it's—"

"Nothing! It-it's nothing," he started frantically, his nervous tick picking back up as he pulled his hoodie together higher up his throat to cover the marks she had spotted there. She reached a hand up, but he only tensed further, so she grinned devilishly up at him instead.

"What?" she teased. "It's not a hickey or anything, is it?"

They weren't, she knew. They were elongated with definite shape to them, but the way the young man spluttered vehement denials of such a thing while his face colored and his eyes twitched, made the question totally worth it. Penny climbed atop her own machine and set her yogurt to the side. She smiled and placed a placating hand on his shoulder. He jumped a little, and she vaguely wondered if it was weird that she was already touching him like this but brushed the thought aside.

"Relax, Billy. I'm kidding. Now let me see." She patted his cheek for effect (really, what was with her and all the touch today?), and he swallowed. He looked at her, uncertain, but eventually relaxed and released the over shirt.

There they were, the nasty, green tinted bruises beneath his jaw line. They held only the faintest tinge of purple, so it was no wonder Penny had almost missed them. She raised a hand to hover near the marred skin and met Billy's eyes. He gulped again; his jaw was set, and he looked out at a point somewhere beyond her left shoulder, but he didn't object, so Penny took it as a sign that she wasn't completely overstepping her boundaries.

He flinched away slightly when her fingers met his skin, yet when Penny checked his face, his eyes were closed. She tilted his head slightly and traced over the multiple blemishes. Her fingers weren't quite long enough, but by putting a finger to each patch of discolored skin, it was easy enough to see what must have happened. It brought to mind the memory of a man all decked out in white, fighting against a thick, black gloved hand locked about his throat, and Penny frowned.

"Oh, Billy," she murmured softly, letting her fingers ghost over the bruised skin once more. His throat clenched and it occurred to the red head that it might be a bit nerve racking for her to be basically reiterating what had happened to him with her own hands. Funnily enough, though, Penny couldn't quite bring herself to pull away. Maybe it had to do with still being upset over Sunday's accident, especially now with it being at the forefront of her mind, but it was hard not to think about how soft his skin felt beneath her fingers. She wasn't quite sure what to make of that, considering they'd only just met, and she was kind of already seeing someone else.

So it was probably a good thing that her washer chose that unexpected moment to sound underneath her. The loud buzzing almost sent Penny soaring over the side of the machine with what remained of her roll of quarters, which burst apart upon impact with the floor. She almost lost her frozen yogurt, but managed to catch it just before it toppled over the edge.

"Oh sh—" Penny breathed, heart still hammering wildly at her scare. She set her rescued dessert back into place and crawled after her scattered change. Billy was at her side in an instant, and she could hear him counting as he scooped up the coins. She glanced over at him a bit awkwardly, trying to figure out what was going on with her today. She was almost never this brazen, certainly not around Captain Hammer. Then, realizing Billy had scraped up more of her change than she, Penny cast it off to the fact that, while they had never spoken before, they had been doing laundry together for months at the very least. It was only natural to feel comfortable with someone you saw on a regular bi-weekly basis. Wasn't it?

She cleared her throat and tried to pick their conversation back up. "So...is everything alright?"

Billy paused in his counting and cocked his head toward her slightly.

"I mean your, uh—um, are you..." She eyed him cautiously, giving her throat a light tap with her free hand as she mentally cursed herself for her inarticulacy.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's practically healed now, and it really looks a lot worse than it actually was."

"Oh."

And that was that as the two resumed their quarter hunt.

"How many do you have?" Billy queried at the same time Penny said, "I hope they find him."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"No, no. You first." Billy looked genuinely amused. "What did you say?"

"Oh. Um. I said, 'I hope they find him.' Whoever did that to you. No one should be allowed to get away with something like that."

If possible, Billy grinned even wider at this, and Penny felt like she was missing the punch line of a very funny joke. Still, she pressed on.

"No one deserves to be treated that way, and certainly not you." She debated her words for a moment, remembering that she knew absolutely nothing about this man, then narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you?"

Billy laughed, and Penny found it as pleasant to listen to as his smile was to watch.

"No. Not even me," he replied. She smiled back, and nudged him lightly with her elbow.

"Well, if you decide you need to cry about it to a practical stranger, I'm your girl. I kind of owe you one."

His eyes twinkled all the brighter, and Penny almost lost herself in them for a moment.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

Still grinning madly, Billy held out a handful of silver coins to her. Penny cupped her hands together to accept them, grinning just as widely.

Then Billy's washer finished it's load and caused Penny to send them both back to square one.

"Oh gosh," she said, feeling the blood rush to her face as she plucked a quarter from the slightly stunned man's hoodie.

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"Thanks for everything, Billy," Penny began, her basket of clean, folded laundry in her arms. Billy rushed ahead somewhat awkwardly to get the door. "The frozen yogurt, listening to me, signing again." She paused and added sheepishly, "Letting me pelt your face with quarters."

"It was nothing," he said. He leaned against the open door, hands shoved into his pants pockets and smiling lightly down at his feet. "I'm just glad you didn't feel the need to hurl anything heavier at me."

Penny laughed for what felt like the millionth time that day.

"You know, it's so dumb we've never spoken until now..." she trailed off, frowning out into the street. She shook her head, shrugged, and turned back to Billy. "So...see you Saturday?"

"It's a date."

She cocked a brow at him, and he seemed to realize what he'd just said.

"And by 'date' I mean like how, you know, every...day...is—_has_—a date. Like today's...date. It's the...uh..." he blinked that twitchy blink of his, and Penny failed to keep the bemused smile from her lips. "I...will be here. On Saturday."

"Okay, good. I'll see you then." She headed off toward her apartment, but was struck by a thought after only a few steps. She looked back and called out, "Hey, Billy?"

"Yeah?" The blond was still leaning against the door, and his head jerked up at his name.

She hesitated, but just for a moment, before finishing. "I'll bring frozen yogurt. There's a shop on my way here."

He opened his mouth, almost as if to object, but closed it back, smiled, and said, "That'd be great." So Penny continued on her way.

It was amazing how only a few days' time had managed to make her life seem vastly more worthwhile.

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	3. Concealer

**_A/N: Okay...so this chapter. This. Chapter. Gah! XD Haha! This chapter was not in the original script. It is actually the mutated, evil clone of the original chapter three. The original chapter three is the new chapter four, and I kicked the original chapter four to the curb. Which is a complete relief. Much as I loved the 'theme' 'idea' whatever for the chapter, the content was lacking, and I've been dreading it this entire time writing. But it was nice and sunny outside, and then Penny and Billy got to talking, (because of them, my skin is screaming D:), and they totally diverted from where I'd been planning to go with it. So instead of tacking the real chapter three's theme to the end of this, I just slapped up a new one! And ripped out a single, lonely paragraph to give back to the next one. This scene from the movie wasn't even going to have more than a vague, passing mention in chapter five. Which is bad on me, because I think I kind of like how it turned out. Plus, I get to add in things I couldn't fit into the original chapter back into the new chapter four! :D_**

**_That...didn't even make any sense, did it?_**

**_Anyways, I'm mostly worried about the first half coming off as a tad boring. There was something else, too, but I can't remember it. :/_**

**_I was going to hold off posting this until Tuesday, but, eh. What the heck, right? Enjoy! :)_**

**_._**

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Chapter 3: Concealer

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Had he always made headlines like this? Or had she just never paid any mind to them before the accident?

Penny smoothed the morning's newspaper into her lap as she read about the disturbance at yesterday's christening of the new Superhero Memorial Bridge. She had been there, of course—being the city hero's girlfriend had afforded her a seat right up at the front, which had been kind of neat—but there were little details in the paper that she hadn't known about. Such as the fact that the LAPD and Captain Hammer had apparently received a tip off about Dr. Horrible's plan's from an "undisclosed source". That explained a lot, actually.

She had wondered at the tight security and her boyfriend's constant insistence that she stay seated up front, that she would be safe there and he would return once things were well. Not to belittle the monument or what it stood for, but it was just a bridge, and the mayor routinely went to events of the sort without a fraction of this caliber of protection. For the life of her, Penny hadn't been able to see what the fuss was about.

5 o' clock had come and gone with no sign of the ceremony beginning any time soon, and the red head had grown antsy and more than a little bit annoyed. The fold up chair was hot and sticky where her dress had ridden up her thighs, and she could almost smell her pale, sensitive skin scorching in the high sunlight.

She had been just about ready to up and leave when she heard it. The sound of laughter from way off behind her, and the click of weapons at the ready. Penny had almost fallen from her chair in surprise when she'd turned to see what was going on. She had been too far up to make out many details, but she'd recognized the glinting goggles and white lab coat, not so much the shining metal something cradled in his arms, but it was unmistakably Dr. Horrible.

Captain Hammer had stepped forward, bouncing words she was too far away to hear back and forth with the villain, and it struck Penny then how odd their color scheme was: the city hero with his black shirt and gloves and the villain glowing white in the bright sun. It was kind of...ironic?

There had been a kind of high pitched whining sound as the doctor switched on the strange whatever it was he'd brought with him. The tip of it had begun to glow, and many in the whispering, muttering crowd had panicked. Penny, herself, hadn't been quite sure what to think of it and just looked on. He _had_ saved her life just two weeks before.

Then, before anything had even happened from the curious, whining contraption, Captain Hammer shocked her by aiming a nearby car straight at the villain's head.

Penny frowned at the memory, remembering how she'd hopped to her feet at once, determined to shove her way through the ensuing chaos to put an end to it. Somehow. To her, the action seemed extreme and unnecessary. And dangerous. Cars exploded, didn't they? Sure, she'd only seen it happen in movies (not that she was big on those types of movies, but Captain Hammer seemed to be, so one would think he'd have thought of that), but they were also expensive; she couldn't hope to afford one herself anytime soon.

But the paper praised the hero for his efforts and mentioned that the city had reimbursed the owners of the car, a young couple with a toddler who were both ecstatic to have been able to offer something to Dr. Horrible's defeat. Speaking of whom.

The doctor had managed to avoid the car, thankfully, but he hadn't been so lucky when it came to her boyfriend. It was something else Penny hadn't approved of. She had even chalked up the nerve to question him about it afterward: the car, the violence, had it really been necessary? The doctor hadn't hurt anybody, and while she hadn't a clue about what the whining machine had been capable of, she couldn't bring herself to think he would have. Then again, she did have a terrible habit of giving people the benefit of the doubt. It had kept her in trouble for years.

The hero had only laughed at her, the kind of laugh that made her feel insignificant and stupid, like he was laughing at _her_ and not just at what she'd said. Then he'd called her his "sweet, naive, silly, little Penny", and explained it away to her. Something about tough love, sans the love bit, that at this point in their hero-villain relationship, if the doctor couldn't take a hit (something he did admirably well, by the way), than he would surely have learned by now how to not trip over inconveniently placed shrapnel and loose tires, or at the very least, he would give up his misdeeds.

Feeling insulted, a bit of a fool, and unsure what to say to that besides, Penny had let it go. What _could_ she say? Quiet, nerdy, unemployed girls who spent all their free time volunteering at homeless shelters and doing laundry with equally quiet, unemployed, and possibly nerdy boys at laundromats didn't tell off their hugely successful, well loved, and totally handsome superhero boyfriends about their villain defeating tactics. It just wasn't done, or so she imagined it wasn't.

Penny sighed and shook out the paper again. By the time she had made it to Captain Hammer's side by the wrecked remains of the car, Dr. Horrible and his contraption were gone. According to the paper, he had escaped arrest with the aid of his henchman, "an undisguised, perpetually perspiring man by the name of 'Moist'". Her mind boggled at this piece of information. If not the villain, couldn't they at least capture his henchman? How many incessantly sweaty men could there possibly be in one city? She thought about that question for a moment before taking it back. But, still, "undisguised" meant they knew what he looked like, right?

Oh. There it was at the bottom. Something about a "Henchman's Union". Penny blinked. Could they even do that?

She set the paper on the counter next to her. There was still no sign of Billy, and she was certain that their frozen yogurts were half melted by now. It had become something of a ritual for them over the last two weeks. Billy would bring them on Wednesdays and Penny took up Saturdays. It was kind of cool, if she had to be honest. She'd never had anything like this with anyone before, not even as a girl.

Penny looked up to the clock in the corner. It had never worked in all the time she'd been coming here, but she looked at it more out of habit than by any actual expectation of time from it. She may as well get started on her own frozen yogurt before it was completely melted. It was a pretty busy morning, especially for a Saturday, so she hadn't been able to get a washer yet anyways.

Frozen yogurt was best when slightly melty, Penny decided as she took a bite, and with that thought, she scoped out the room again. A woman in the corner was emptying two washers at that moment, and she pondered how juvenile of her it would be to snag one and save the other for Billy. Like shoving her purse into the empty seat beside her at the movies, maybe stacking her basket, detergent, and fabric softener onto the unused washer would work the same way.

Still digging away at her half liquified dessert, Penny eyed the woman like a hawk, and as soon as she walked off in search of a free dryer, the red head went into mission mode (she was such a dork). She recapped the styrofoam cup and shoved it back into the paper sack, her eyes never straying from the free washers even as she hopped down from the counter. She smoothed down her skirt, grabbed her belongings, and was so focused on her goal that she failed to notice either the chime of the bell over the door or the person entering through it. Until she rammed right into them.

"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry!"

"Pardon."

She smiled, recognizing the voice.

"Hey, you, there's some free washers over there." Penny jerked her head toward the corner, and her smile dissolved into horror when she caught sight of him. "Oh my God. Billy, what happened? You look like you had a truck thrown at your face."

Wait. No, that wasn't how the expression went. But it worked. The entire left side of his face was a bruise, and a gash high on his cheekbone caused the mutilated flesh to puff out slightly. His left eye was also swollen and discolored, but not quite to the point of blocking off the cold, blue iris from sight completely. He bristled a bit at her words and looked somewhat stunned.

"Car."

"What?" Penny snapped her eyes from the wounds she'd been so engrossed with at the sound of his voice.

"Nothing."

She stared up at him curiously, and he seemed to wither a bit under her steady gaze.

"You know, I was kind of expecting you to be more subtle than that," Billy told her, and she couldn't tell for certain whether he was truly miffed or just miserable when he said it. Probably both. She shook her head, not even bothering to apologize for her bluntness, and gestured toward the corner again.

"Come on. Let's go before someone else gets to them."

.

.

Penny watched her laundry buddy closely as they sorted through their clothes. She saw the limp in his walk, his grimace when he'd knelt to pick up a fallen shirt, the difficulty he'd had lifting himself onto the washer as he always did. As soon as he'd managed the latter, she'd shoved a half-frozen yogurt into his lap and joined him atop her own washer.

Finding out what happened to Billy was tricky. He tended to clam up if asked too many—or, in fact, too personal—questions, but Penny eventually found the right ones to ask to get the gist of the story.

He hadn't gone to the police because it wouldn't have done any good. He hadn't seen a doctor because he couldn't really afford it, and anyways, he knew enough first aid to get by in this instance. He'd been through worse, he'd told her, and this admission greatly bothered Penny. He wouldn't give her any specifics on what happened, and she supposed that was fair, but he had apparently been on his way to a job interview—one for which he'd been preparing for really almost ever.

"Wait, so you actually know the guy who did this to you?" Billy looked up from his yogurt with a wry smile and shrugged. Penny stared. "And you still won't go to the authorities and put a stop to it? Billy, that's the kind of thing they get paid for."

He only scoffed at her words before digging back into his no-longer-frozen yogurt with a derisive mutter of, "The authorities."

Penny frowned. Billy noticed.

"Like I said, it wouldn't do any good." Her brow furrowed deeper, and he cut her off before she could argue. Again. "Listen, the guy's a real...meat-head, you know? Total idiot, major jerk, 'I don't go to the gym, I'm just naturally like this' kind of guy?" She nodded, understanding. She'd known a lot of guys like that in her life...had dated more of them than she cared to admit, too. It hit pretty close to home.

"But...he's got friends in high places, too. And I'm just a—" he paused and blinked before frowning and finishing a bit lamely, "Well I don't. Needless to say, I didn't leave a favorable impression at the interview."

Billy stopped long enough to stab moodily into the cup with his spork before going on. "I feel like I'd be a great fit for this job, like I could really make a difference in the world, be an _achiever_, but I just can't seem to get my foot in the door."

Penny watched him, heart melting like the creamy dessert he so bitterly went about maiming with his spork. Her breath caught in her throat, but fishing it back out didn't seem particularly important somehow. In that moment, she felt she understood Billy completely. She knew that helpless feeling caused by suffering the injustices of the world, that desire to put an end to it once and for all, and especially the resentful disappointment when it all disappeared down the drain, right in front of you. She should say something. Find some kind of words to comfort her ailing friend. But, alas, all Penny could do was stare at Billy while her heart beat double time and her stomach did some kind of unnerving, swooshy, flop move inside of her. It wasn't exactly an unpleasant feeling. Almost the opposite, in fact. Kind of weird.

"Penny?"

She blinked and gave her head a quick shake. Billy looked concerned.

"Hmm?" was her intelligent response. How long had she been staring at him all doe-eyed like that? It was embarrassing.

"You weren't breathing."

"Oh." She still wasn't, come to think of it, so she took this opportunity, while it was fresh on her mind, to take in a breath and let it back out. "Well, I am now."

He smiled an amused, half smile at that.

"So you are."

They seemed to happen a lot, these lingering moments where she and Billy would just smile together. Like now, for instance. But, soon enough, Penny found her eyes straying off to the beaten half of his face, in particular the foul gash tracing along his cheekbone. She eyed it with skepticism, and her smiled dropped away.

"You're sure it's not infected or anything?" She poked at it gently, unable to help herself, and winced at the feel of it. She couldn't even begin to imagine something like that.

"Well, not if you keep touching it," Billy teased, and Penny smirked in response.

"You know, there are these liquid bandages you can get at the store, and you probably really should cover this up with someth—"

She stopped, another bemused smile taking hold of her features when she finally did pull her fingers away.

"Really? You didn't."

Billy chuckled nervously, blinking all the while, as Penny anchored the tips of her fingers at the base of his neck and swiped her thumb lightly over the bruised flesh. She looked from her powdered thumb back up to him, eyebrow raised.

"Concealer?"

"Heh...yeah..."

"You know, I don't think that stuff is quite heavy duty enough for something like this."

Billy spluttered. "Well, I know that _now_! But it helped some, and I was already late, so I couldn't take the time to wash it off."

"Ooh, hold that thought," Penny said, reaching down for her bag and rummaging through it. Oh good. She had kept them in here. "We can take care of that right now, actually."

She brandished a sponge applicator and an almost empty bottle of make up remover. Billy laughed and shook his head in disbelief once he'd made out the words printed on the bottle. "You're kidding."

"Nope!" Penny answered brightly, wetting the sponge. "This way, no one else can make fun of you. Now hold still. I'll be as gentle as I can, but let me know if it's too much."

She dabbed the sponge to his cheek, and his eyes fluttered closed. He'd been right. It actually had helped mask some of the discoloration. She studied his face as she cleansed it, noticing how he hardly twinged at all. In fact, Penny was pretty sure that she winced far more than he did. He really had relaxed a lot around her over the last several laundry days, less jumpy and twitchy and nervous, but still a bit of all three. It was nice. Especially now, with his expression so content and at ease. It was a wonderful change from the previous gloom, and she wondered if it was too late to try and pick him up from that fall.

"Maybe..." Penny paused to wet the other side of the applicator. Her teeth tugged at her lower lip as she cast about for a way to word her thoughts, and Billy peered at her from behind slightly cracked lids. She went back to work and tried again. "Maybe this job wasn't the job for you. Sometimes, things just...happen, you know? And maybe there's something better for you out there that you just haven't found yet." It took all of Penny's will to draw her eyes from the lilt of his lips and back to the cheek she was tending to. "I'm sure that there's something that will realize you for all you can achieve, and not just, you know," she tapped the left side of his jaw line with her finger and smirked, "your penchant for getting hurt."

Billy looked at her with dazed eyes and a small smile. "How do you do that? Manage to find the vaguest semblance of hope in everything? And I _really_ mean vague. That's a lot of maybe's."

"Years of practice, Billy Buddy," she answered with a shrug, touching the sponge to tender skin once more.

"I'd like to hear about it. Sometime."

Penny froze, her eyes flicking back up to his own a bit apprehensively. "It's...not a very good story," she told him. Thinking back on it made her feel sad and ashamed, mostly the latter, and people tended to look down on her if she accidentally let something slip.

"I doubt that," he said softly.

"You'll look down on me, everyone does," she tried again. Somehow, she didn't think she could bear having Billy of all people ridicule her for not quite being good enough.

"Let's see," he started, looking off into space, eyes squinted, as though he was trying to remember something. "I'm unemployed, can't afford to see a doctor, and have concealer slathered all over my face. I think I just might be the perfect audience."

Penny snorted. "Well, when you put it that way..."

And so it was there, in the middle of a busy coin wash on a Saturday afternoon, with two melted cups of frozen yogurt, and while cleaning makeup from the face of a man she'd known for less than a handful of weeks (who was already the best friend she thought she'd ever had), that Penny told her story for the first time in longer than she could remember.

Could life possibly get any weirder?

Penny thought not.

.

* * *

.

_**A/N: Hey, lookit! More unnecessary ramblings about the chapter! Thanks for reading! Hope it was okay! :D**_

_**I just love writing Penny's perspective. She really doesn't have a clue. -shakes head- Not that it's her fault or anything.**_

_**I'd wanted Billy to call Captain Hammer a 'tool face' instead. Because it would be funny. :P But it seemed too juvenile...And then a radio commercial for a local gym came on that used the term 'meat-head'. So that one**__****__** won out. For the sole fact of being on the radio. Bummer. :/ I also wanted to work in a line where Billy actually called said meat-head something akin to his arch-nemesis, and Penny laughed and told him that he was just being ridiculous. -insert wilting smile and awkward agreement- Their dialogue kind of wrote itself, though, and that was the point I decided to do wonky stuff. :/**_

_**And maybe it's just a trick of the light or Neil Patrick Harris' cheekbones, I dunno!, but I've noticed the last couple [dozen] of times I've watched this, that when Dr. H comes back on camera after the bridge event, doesn't it look like he has this nasty bruise on the left side of his face? I try telling myself it's just a shadow, and that I really shouldn't be abusing poor Billy so much over something that probably isn't even there, but it seems far too high up on his cheekbone to be. **_

_**Haha! I almost lied! :D This chapter was only about 200 and some odd words less than the last one! (Pre-author's note, that is.) I am however, definitely certain that the next one won't be quite this long. Since the bridge christening flashback thing got to stay in this chapter, I need new beginning filler material for the next one. Still easier than the original chapter four, though, so I'm not complaining. This chapter went through so many name changes before I just went with the obvious choice.**_

_**I've only read Billy's story as far as the comics go, and I saw one page on Penny's that I don't think even had words, but along with her song in the movie, it kind of inspired the ideas I do have so...I guess that's a warning that I'm making stuff up or something. Just going off the pictures and lyrics and whatnot. Speaking of the comics, though, does anyone know if Moist has a real name in his? If not, I'll just make up that, too.**_

_**And Billy does seem very comfortable Penny by this scene in the movie...so I just tried to roll with it. Maybe it worked. Maybe it didn't. -shrug-**_

_**I blame any and all instances of over-silly and lameness on the sun's influence. My old marching band instructor called it 'sun stupid', I believe. I plead that.**_

_**Also, starting Tuesday, I work a ten day stretch, so...I won't promise anything less than seven days for the next one. :/**_


	4. Whites

_**A/N: Wow I cannot believe it took me this long to get this chapter out. My sincerest apologies to those who may or may not have been waiting for it. This is exactly why I wasn't going to let myself watch How I Met Your Mother until I finished this story. (BrOTP, anyone? :D) But after the last chapter, I was burnt and tired and all five seasons had been sitting on my couch for two weeks already...and well, I think you can see where this tale is going. :/**_

_**Anywho, once I dug myself out of that obsession to think about this story again, then I had to find Billy again, because somewhere in the last two months (wow, I was supposed to be long finished with this story by now) he was lost in Barney-land, and all I could make him do was make inappropriate comments about all the ladies in the laundry room whilst poor Penny looked on with a WTF-I-didn't-sign-up-for-this kind of face. Entertaining? Very much so! But so not Billy. I'm still not sure I got him back completely. You'll have to let me know. :/**_

_**However! This chapter pre-A/N is longer that either of the last two post-A/N. And we all know how much I like to ramble, so...:) I hope that kind of makes up for the delay! Enjoy!  
**_

_**Also, I think I responded to all the signed reviews, I hope I didn't miss anybody. But I'd very much also like to thank the unsigned reviewers, fav-ers, and alert-ers. I've been very pleasantly surprised by the feedback for this story and appreciate every bit of it. You guys rock! :)**_

_**Pardon any errors. I only looked through it once after finishing it. I'm up way past my bedtime and have work tomorrow, but I wanted to get this up before my two day vacation with the mom and sis this weekend. :)  
**_

._**  
**_

* * *

Chapter 4: Whites

* * *

.

The last couple of weeks had gone by rather uneventfully. Dr. Horrible hadn't appeared again in the news since the bridge incident; Billy had even managed to avoid any more bruises and injuries, and, save for a faint pink line across his cheek, he was completely healed from his last ones. As for Captain Hammer? Well. He was still Captain Hammer. Her boyfriend the superhero. All in all, it wasn't half as exciting as Penny imagined it might ought to be, but things were going good. He was...nice. Sweet. Thoughtful even.

At times.

Okay, so things weren't perfect. But she couldn't really say there was anything wrong either.

Especially not after what had happened yesterday. She found herself practically dancing down the aisles of washers while she waited for Billy to show, only just able to contain the excitement bubbling within her. Penny couldn't believe it. This was really happening to her. And she _really_ needed someone to gush to about it before she exploded with the giddiness. Preferably someone who might care about it almost as much as she did.

Where was he anyways? She hadn't so much as glanced at a clock when she'd left her apartment, and a quick peek at the one hanging uselessly in the corner did nothing for her. Well, Penny thought to herself, if she had managed to step out too early, it was probably a good thing given how the traffic in this place had really gone up lately. She already had their washers picked out and accounted for and couldn't keep from casting another anxious look out the window.

Then again, her impatience probably had more to do with the way time very nearly stopped when one bore eager news. How long had she actually been here anyways? It might have only been five minutes, Penny didn't know, but it already felt like upwards of an hour to her.

Sitting down was a no go. She couldn't keep still for long enough, twitching and fidgeting and holding back enough delirious energy to probably run a marathon, so she paced along the windows, pretty well out of the way of the other laundry goers. But after about a minute of that, her antsy mind ditched the excitement in favor of slight worry.

Now she was just being stupid, the red head told herself. There was no reason to worry. Billy hadn't mentioned anything about the guy who had it in for him since that Saturday he'd walked in bruised and nigh broken. He never mentioned any more potential interviews after that, and though he may have seemed a bit more nervous and spacey after that particular incident, last Saturday he'd been just fine.

Today was Wednesday. On Wednesdays Billy brought frozen yogurt. He was probably just running behind. Or she had just left early in her rush to tell him her good news. But maybe neither of those things was the case and she was just going out of her mind from holding this all in, and good God couldn't she just chill out for a little bit? This was ridiculous! Penny was a patient person—unreasonably so, as she'd proven time and time again—but it wasn't very often that great things happened to her. And when they did, it was even less often that she had someone who would be as happy for her as she was.

Now that she was thinking about it, though, it was hard not to worry about Billy a little bit. He'd had some truly awful things done to him in just the short time she'd known him. Even longer than that if she really looked back on it, back in the day when all he was to her was a pretty cute guy who happened to do laundry at the same time as she did. Penny frowned at that. He had come in somewhat battered and looking a little worse for wear several times since she'd first noticed him months ago. But she'd never paid it much mind back then, thinking that it was just, well...wait. What exactly had she thought back then?

Her eyebrows scrunched together further as she tried to remember. Surely she hadn't been so apathetic to someone so obviously in need? Though it might have been the looks of shame and embarrassment he often wore in those times that had kept her from confronting the man so boldly as she did now. Penny knew that look, as well as the mortification that came with strangers prying into business that wasn't theirs, the judging eyes that came to their own conclusions no matter how far off the mark they might be. He still held a bit of that look these last times when she could actually bring the injuries up.

Another glance out the window quelled any of her worries, however, making room instead for her previous overwhelming excitement. A few moments later when she attacked Billy at the doorway, his basket of clothing scrambled slightly at their feet from the unexpected force of her, the feel of his hands pressed uncertainly against the small of her back, Penny tried not to think about how much more important laundry days were to her now than they used to be.

There was something oddly familiar about hugging Billy, which was just plain crazy since she never had before. She couldn't really explain it, but there was something about the way his shirt smelled like her favorite fabric softener (no surprise there. Penny knew he used the same brand and scent as she), the comfortable way—now since she'd eased her way back to the balls of her feet, hands unclasped from around his neck to settle on his shoulders—that her head fit against his shoulder. It was just...familiar. Maybe even kind of pleasant. Billy swallowed above her, and Penny notice then how quickly his heart was beating.

"Sorry," she said, pushing away from him a bit and looking up (and heck, there was even something about that that niggled at the back of her conscience). "I got a little carried away. Didn't mean to scare you like that, I'll try not to again."

His nervous confusion dissolved instantly into a wide grin. "No, no," he said, his arms loosening but still resting around her, "feel free to scare me whenever the need arises. In fact, it's encouraged. I might even go so far as to expect it from now on."

Penny snorted at that and punched him playfully in the shoulder, unable to keep from smiling a little herself.

"You think I'm kidding," he chuckled down at her, "but I'm completely serious."

The red head just scoffed and rolled her eyes before gently pushing the rest of the way out of his arms. "Billy, you're horrible."

She must have hit a nerve somewhere, because he started at those words for some reason, suddenly transformed back into the twitchy, blinking mess he had ever so gradually been pulling away from since they'd first started speaking. Penny tilted her head up at him and rubbed a comforting hand over his arm.

"Hey, you okay? You know I was just kidding, right?"

"Huh?" Billy blinked and ran a hand through his hair, letting out a shaky breath as he did so. "Yeah...sorry. Yeah, I'm fine. I-It's nothi—so...what exactly brought that on then?"

Penny regarded his awkward change of subject with some concern for a moment before deciding that pressing him would do no good. That was Billy for you. It took days to build up his confidence to a level where anyone could see how great he really was and only a single sentence said in jest to shatter it all completely. So she smiled and let it pass, and hey, now that he'd mentioned it, her earlier joy was coming back to her.

"Washers first," she said. "Then the big news."

.

.

Billy'd been kind of weird about his laundry after that, letting out a strangled protest when Penny dropped to her knees to tuck everything back into the basket and eying the load as though something deadly might spring from it at any given moment. He'd babbled something about having a 'thing' about his clothes but eventually calmed down enough to let her carry them to the washers she'd staked out earlier.

It didn't stop there, though; he was deliberate about sorting through his things, and Penny felt pretty sure she knew why her quarters were mysteriously hopping off her washer to roll along the floor opposite her laundry buddy. By the time she had retrieved them, his whites had already been tipped into the machine with Billy sitting atop it, looking for all the world as though he was innocent from it all. She eyed him sharply, unamused; his cheek twitched a little in return.

Yeah, she'd thought so.

"So, good news?" he started, handing over a frozen yogurt and effectively distracting her from his weirdness for the time being.

Penny grinned. It was hard to believe she'd managed not to blurt it out already, but now her adrenaline was rushing again and she finally had her outlet in place. She wouldn't give anything else a chance to distract her again.

"I got the building!" she practically squealed in delight.

It took a moment for her words to sink in, but when they did, Billy's face lit up with a smile she imagined might even rival her own.

"Really? Wow! When?"

"Yesterday," she gushed enthusiastically. "Yesterday afternoon the mayor signed it over to Caring Hands. But that's not all." Penny paused for dramatic effect and took a bite of her yogurt. It must have worked, too, because Billy seemed genuinely more intrigued that before. "It's going to be _my_ building. They offered me the job, said they couldn't keep expecting me to do things of this caliber for free, that they couldn't afford loosing me, that they couldn't think of a better fit to head over their newest branch. It'll be about a month before it opens—it needs a bunch of work done before we try to move people in—and the pay isn't much since it's non-profit, but it beats unemployment. Billy, I _finally _have a job again!"

"Wow...congratulations! Wow, Penny, I don't even know what to say..."

"Thank you!" And she really couldn't help it, but she threw her arms around his neck again, only barely managing to avoid a sticky mess involving frozen yogurt in the process. This time his arms settled a little more surely at her shoulder blades.

"So how many signatures did it take you to pull this off anyways?"

Penny froze. And just like that, her ecstasy fell away. She pulled back from Billy to lean against the washer across from his, focusing her attention fully on swirling the spork through the dessert in her hands. She could feel his confused gaze burning a hole through her head, but she was kind of ashamed—disheartened really—to admit to what had actually happened. Penny frowned down at the styrofoam cup for a few more moments before heaving a sigh and pushing off of the washing machine.

"You were right, Billy. The whole petition thing really was dumb." The blond's confusion deepened at those words, but Penny cut him off before he could protest them. "I've been working on this so hard for more than a month, only gotten a hundred and fifty or so signatures, and in the end, none of that matters. Because all it took was one person's name—_one person's—_and now suddenly there's nothing the city would rather do than aid in the fight against homelessness. They want to have a big opening ceremony, just another reason to make themselves look good, to pat themselves on the back for another 'generous' deed well done. I mean, really, where's the charity in that?"

Wow. Penny hadn't realized quite how bitter she felt about the entire situation until she started talking about it. Her adrenaline was pumping again, but not in the happily excited way it had been earlier, and her hands gripping the frozen yogurt were shaking slightly.

"Ah..." Billy offered, a look of understanding crossing over his face. "Hammer?"

"Yes," she responded, tight-lipped and fuming. "And you know what? Fine. So what. I had to get the attention of the city hero first before anyone would take this seriously. We've been seeing each other almost the entire time I've been working on this. He knows what I've been trying to do and how important it is to me. So, alright, I never outright asked him about it all, but he's the _hero._ Shouldn't he have taken an interest in it from the start because helping people is what he does? Sorry," she added, noting Billy's uncertainty at her outburst. "It just...frustrates me, I guess. I mean, why now all of the sudden? _You_ signed on my first day out despite thinking the whole thing was stupid."

"Hey, I never said—"

"You implied it."

His jaw worked once, twice before he countered, "I implied that it was futile."

Penny stared at her laundry buddy pointedly, and he relented.

"Okay, so you caught me on a good day. Believe me, I wouldn't go and sign a petition for just anyo—thing. And just because I didn't think it would work doesn't mean I didn't want it to."

She just smiled sadly down at her yogurt, swirling her spork through it a tad dejectedly. "Well I suppose that doesn't really matter since I just proved you right."

How in the world had this happened? She had been happy today. So very happy. So heart pumpingly, step skippingly, the-world-is-finally-throwing-me-a-bone-type-thought inducingly happy. But now where was it all?

"Listen...I'm not really good with these pick me up speeches or whatever like you do..." Penny's smiled perked up a bit, but she didn't look away from the cup in her hands. "But it doesn't really matter how you got the building...the mayor's intentions...Captain Hammer's. You have the building. And now that you do, you can start making things happen."

Billy was right. She knew it. It wasn't just about the building, though. It was also about making people care, see the rest of the world outside of their own cozy residences. One thing at a time, she supposed. One thing at a time. But that Billy, arguably one of the—if not _the_ most—cynical people she'd ever met, was trying to find a silver lining for her to cling to...well, it meant a lot. It really did.

"Yeah. You're right," she conceded, finally meeting his eyes with her own. And it was kind of hard to not want to—oh why the heck not?

She placed a hand on his knee, successfully tearing his gaze from hers to the point of contact. Then, before he could realize what she was doing and probably wind up ruining the moment by accident, Penny leaned in to brush a light kiss over his cheek. If her stomach happened to flop about strangely and her lips tingled a bit from the brief contact, it didn't mean anything. It had just been an innocent show of thanks and affection from one friend to another. That was it.

Predictably enough, Billy did flinch a bit when she kissed him, and she hoped it hadn't made him too uncomfortable. Poor guy. His personal boundaries had really been taking a beating from her lately, but he had yet to speak a word against it to her. That had to mean something.

He was really far more adorable than any grown man had the right to be with that baffled expression and coloring complexion when Penny pulled away. That alone made her want to try it again, but for his sake she resisted. Maybe even a tiny bit for hers.

"Thanks, Billy," she said, smiling and turning back to her frozen yogurt. Through the corner of her eye, she tried not to notice the goofy grin that twitched it's way to his lips.

.

.

Penny would never understand how the dryers in this place always managed to go twice as quickly as the washers did. It figured that once she finally did spot two in a row free and made her way toward them, basket of soggy clothes in hand, one of the middle aged women nearby pushed her way in front of the red head without a word and tossed her load into the both of them. Taken aback at the woman's rudeness, the red head just stared wide-eyed for a moment. The woman sent a withering stare her way as if daring the younger woman to try and make a scene. Penny threw up the white flag, lips pursed to keep any unfavorable thoughts from drifting from her, and turned back.

"Gosh, people are rude," she commented offhandedly to Billy when she placed the basket back on her washer. He was busy sorting through the change on his machine and counting several coins in his hand. He didn't pause when she spoke and was so engrossed he probably hadn't even heard her return. He snatched up a few more quarters before acknowledging her presence.

"Huh?" was Billy's distracted reply. He took note of her still full basket and whirled his head around to look at the dryers along the walls, all of which were running. "Oh," was all he said for a moment. Then, "Hey, you can use mine when it's done. It shouldn't be much longer. My colors can wait." Penny smiled her thanks, and Billy fidgeted a little before speaking up again. "Hey, uh...I was thinking about running across the street for a drink. Do you want anything?"

"You know, all the people in here today, it is pretty warm. Something to drink would be kind of nice. Here..." She fumbled around with her roll of quarters, but he had already gone. Penny just shook her head as she watched his retreating figure through the glass. It was sweet of Billy, but of course she would have to pay him back when he returned. He'd already done frozen yogurt for the day; it wasn't fair for him to get her drink, too. He couldn't afford it any more than she could, she knew. Except that now she probably could what with her new job and all.

For the next few minutes, Penny waited, thinking about nothing in particular, when she heard the beep of a dryer not too far away. Billy's from the look of it.

She glanced out the window, but her laundry buddy was nowhere in sight. With the traffic, it would probably take him a few more minutes to return. And maybe it was just Penny's imagination after her run in with the woman earlier, but it was like the whole atmosphere of the laundromat had changed at the sound. She swore she noticed several other older women around her eye the dryer with interest, gripping their own loads more tightly. Biting her lip anxiously, she searched outside through the window again before making a decision, and grabbing both Billy's and her baskets before making her way to the dryer.

They'd been doing laundry together bi-weekly for over a month. It wasn't like Penny hadn't seen practically every article in his ensemble—not that she'd been looking all that hard or anything, it was the kind of thing that just came with sorting through your things right next to somebody all the time—and she'd found him turning red and spluttering enough to know for a fact that he had seen pretty much everything she had to offer herself. He'd never showed any signs of having a 'thing' about his clothes before today. Well, no, there was that one day soon after his failed interview, but that was it.

So Penny just wouldn't look. Dig them out blindly, drop them in the basket, throw a towel over his things and her stuff in and voila! No problems. Billy's modesty or whatever it was that had him acting like this would be saved from the vengeful wrath of the surrounding laundry obsessed dryer vultures, any of whom was very likely to eventually take matters into her own hands and leave his things piled somewhere in the middle of everything.

She set her basket on the floor and stalled for a moment at the dryer, part out of trying to convince herself things would be worse if she didn't do it, part out of curiosity of what could possibly be in there to make him such a frantic, possessive mess, and part out of wondering whether or not she should be weirded out that it was something in his load of whites that he was so eager for no one to see. Penny supposed there were probably just some things about Billy she would never understand and tugged at the door.

Staring pointedly at her own clothes on the ground, she dragged his things into the basket. At her third or so handful, Penny froze. She released her hold on the items in her hand and sifted through the remains for something her fingers had just brushed against. It had been familiar, as so many things today were seeming to be, and as soon as she'd found it again, she almost stopped breathing. Penny ran her hand over the cloth, pushing away the thought of how weird this situation would appear to anyone else.

The fabric was thick, a bit course...and it brought to the front of her mind memories of being held tightly in a stranger's arms, weak and shaking and confused and mostly just plain terrified. She swallowed and gripped the fabric even more tightly. Penny hadn't thought back much on the accident since shortly after talking to Billy for the first time during laundry. Despite the dating a superhero bits and constant scanning of headlines in search of a certain villain's name, she'd done a pretty bang up job of it until about ten seconds ago. But now her mind was reeling at the onslaught of buried feelings, and something inside her had suddenly decided that it was very, very important that she know what exactly she had hold of.

It was a completely illogical thought. It was just a shirt. Maybe a pair of pants. Just something heavy duty to work in. Like painting the walls or doing yard work. Well...maybe not so much that last one. Or the first one either, come to think of it. It didn't really matter what he wore it for, she tried to reason. It wasn't going to change the fact that she'd almost died a few weeks ago. Logic didn't appear to hold any weight in this argument, however, and Penny dropped the basket and snapped her attention to the inside of the machine, frantically pulling at the article in her hand. She only got as far as one long, white sleeve before she was overtaken by a different type of trepidation.

"Hey, I realized I didn't know what you wanted, so I—what are you doing!"

Penny dropped the sleeve and spun around to face Billy, who was somehow managing to look just as irrationally terrified as she felt.

"Sorry!" she spluttered. "I wasn't—I didn't—it was just—" After that, Penny gave up on trying to form a coherent sentence, deciding instead that she needed some fresh air to get over her unexpected bout of insanity. Without even another attempt at words, she rushed passed the panicked man and out the door.

A few minutes later found a much calmer Penny leaning against the windows of the building. The fresh air had been a good idea. It was nice and warm outside, and the soft breeze that dropped by every so often was remarkably soothing. Maybe they should start sitting outside on laundry days. At least when the weather permitted.

The little bell above the door jingled, but Penny paid it no mind, just trying to focus on her breathing and returned sanity. Then something really cold and damp pressed up against her forehead. She didn't flinch away, it actually felt kind of nice, but she did crack her eyelids enough to make out Billy standing next to her, a bottle of soda in one hand and another against her face.

"You okay?" he asked softly, tilting his head a bit so that he was kind of looking up at her.

"Yeah," she offered slowly, reaching up to take the drink from him. "Thanks. Just had a weird...flashback type thing. I freaked."

She downed half the bottle in one go, reveling in the burn from the carbonation scratching it's way down her throat. Huh, root beer. Her favorite.

Billy joined her in leaning against the window, looking off into the distance and swirling around his bottle distractedly. Penny suspected it was taking most of his will not to bolt. She really didn't want him to think he had a reason to.

"Sorry," she started. The only notion he made of having heard her was to still the bottle in his hand. "I wasn't snooping...intentionally. It was just...Billy." She paused, her voice taking on a more serious tone, and Billy glanced sideways at her. "We have to get our laundromat back from those machine crazed harpies."

It seemed to do the trick. Billy snorted over top of his drink, and she smiled.

"No kidding. When I threw your stuff in, I thought they were—"

"Wait, the bras, too?"

And of course he choked when she said that, his face reddening before he stuttered, "I-I uh—I don't—I, uh...didn't really...look."

Penny shrugged. Oh well. If it took a few ruined bras to keep her relationship with Billy on even footing, it was worth it. And wow she hadn't realized how weird that would sound until she thought it. She was probably turning red now too.

"Okay, brainstorming!" she announced before she could think too much about her poorly worded thoughts. Billy, still a little red from his earlier embarrassment, smirked, and Penny wondered if he was going to be better at this than she'd mentally already given him credit for.

Yes. Laundry day was definitely the best two days of the week. Somehow or another, with Billy around, they never failed to be interesting.

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_**A/N: Less ramblings tonight...this morning?...ugh, too tired. But thanks for reading! :)  
**_

_**Thought I'd at least mention the original ch. 4 idea. I'd read a fic or two between here and some lj community with Billy making a mute ray, silencing beam, whatever that backfires on him...and I thought it would be a fun idea to to play around with if it happened during the time he was talking to Penny. It was the first idea I put toward this fic, actually. But I really didn't have any ideas for it. There just isn't a terrible lot to work with. But it's great that it got deleted, because I always wanted Penny to glomp Billy somewhere throughout all this, but it didn't really work when this chapter was supposed to happen when he was hurt after the bridge ceremony, the original ch 4 wouldn't have started out in a way to make it work, and the neither would the last two. So yeah. I'm happy. :)**_

_**Second hug and kiss also not in the script. Total accidents. :P**_

_**Rewrote the last scene and a half like twelve times and I dunno. It's better than it was, but still. I just don't know. :/**_

_**I promise not to be another two and some odd months in the updating. But vacationing comes first. :)**_

_**Sleeping now...hope you guys enjoyed. :D  
**_


	5. Roommate

**_A/N: So I didn't make my two week update goal...But thanks to the guy at the gym, I did manage to make my one month backup goal! :D If he hadn't have talked me into taking his legs and abs class instead of running, when I'd've gotten home I probably would have cooked dinner or done chores or something equally distracting. But no. I took his class, fell down on the couch, and then I couldn't get back up. So I took up my computer and notebook that I'd left within arms reach the night before and pushed my way through the agonizing typing/revision of this chapter...So yay for that. I guess. :/_**

**_I thought I'd done a lot of thinking about this chapter before I started it. Then I realized that I only knew the title, first sentence, batteries thing, James (I don't know why James, but it stuck, and I couldn't shake it), and the 'you should ask him that' line. Filling in the rest was difficult. I took out a bunch of things that I really did like in the revision, but they didn't really work, so...bummer...:/ It's still a couple hundred words longer, though...  
_**

**_Thanks again to everyone reading this and I hope that you guys enjoy the chapter! :)  
_**

**.**

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**Chapter 5: Roommate**

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Penny wasn't happy.

It hadn't been a sudden revelation or anything like that. It was something that had kind of been creeping up on her for several weeks now. And she still couldn't make much sense of it. There wasn't a time she could think of when life had been this good to her, and it had certainly never been better. She had a job doing something she absolutely loved—the building still had another week and a half before opening—and the fact that she'd never had the opportunity to finish her Social Work degree wasn't holding her back. She was changing the world one unfortunate soul at a time, and it was incredible.

She was dating who could be called the most influential man in the city—that was how she'd taken to thinking of Captain Hammer lately. Not so much as a hero as an influence. Penny wondered if she'd started treating him as more of one, too. A means to an end, the only way to get her ideals out to the world. She didn't think she had. Then again, she didn't really _want_ to think she had either.

Then there was Billy, the best friend she'd never had and the person she felt closest to. Far closer to than Captain Hammer. Far happier around than with Captain Hammer. She supposed that it was this realization that had complicated things. Penny didn't know when exactly she'd picked up on these feelings, but she'd pushed them aside. She wasn't that kind of girl. She was loyal, faithful, grateful. Besides, what she had with Billy now was already great. There was no sense ruining a perfectly good friendship with the confessions of one-sided affection, even if a miniscule part of Penny wasn't truly convinced it was all just her. But last night's events had just rendered it all too difficult to ignore.

It wasn't that the sex hadn't been fantastic or even that she hadn't really wanted it at the time, because Penny knew without a doubt that neither of these things was true. She _had_ wanted it, if only to prove to herself that she was truly happy this way, that her extraneous feelings for Billy were just a projection of said happiness onto the only her only guy friend (who just happened to also be rather attractive), that they didn't mean anything. But the whole thing had backfired, and come morning time, guilt had nestled itself, comfortable and unyielding, in the pit of her stomach.

Penny's hand fell just short of the door at the Coin Wash before collapsing, defeated, back down to her side. She toed the sidewalk with her shoes, not quite able to go in just yet. She'd rushed her way home from Captain Hammer's as soon as she'd awoken that morning. Getting away hadn't stifled any of the guilt or shame she felt, however, and the countless cups of tea she'd drunk while getting her laundry together hadn't particularly served her much more comfort. She had left her apartment early with an urgent need to see Billy, despite the fact that he probably wouldn't be there yet; it was Wednesday, after all.

Now that she was here right outside the entrance, though, that sudden need had gone. Instead the red head felt nervous, ashamed, kind of sick even. She didn't know if she could handle seeing him so soon after her betrayal. Not that she had really betrayed him. Maybe Captain Hammer for wishing he was someone else. Maybe even herself for pretending to want to keep things the way they were. But not Billy. He knew she was with Hammer. He'd known from the start. There weren't any expectations between them beyond a couple of cups of frozen yogurt and some companionship for a few hours during laundry.

Unfortunately, logic really didn't seem to be doing all that much for Penny these days.

So she took a nice, deep breath in a failed attempt to flush out some of the discomfort writhing around inside of her and forced her way through the glass. The laundromat was surprisingly empty, in particular for a weekday. Even more unexpected, though, was the sight of Billy's laundry basket already resting on a nearby washer, a duffel bag slung alongside it. Penny didn't know how she could tell it was his, it wasn't like his basket looked any different than anyone else's, but she imagined it was probably just another one of those things that came with doing laundry with someone on a regular basis.

She claimed the machine next to it and cast around her gaze for the owner. She spied him in the corner, standing on a chair she wouldn't have trusted to hold her own weight much less his, fidgeting with the old wall clock. The few people who were actually inside today shot the man an occasional disapproving look, and Penny smiled, momentarily forgetting that morning's angst as she approached him.

"What're you—"

But her words were cut off when Billy yelped from surprise and lost his balance on the chair. It was instinctual, really. When one saw a person almost fall, the automatic reflex was to help keep them from doing so, so she shot one arm out around his shine and the other up to his sweatshirt to help brace him. One of his arms had windmilled it's way around to find bearing on her shoulder, and she felt him tense a little beneath her touch. He let out a shaky breath before clearing his throat; even from this angle Penny could see his cheeks taking on a faint red hue. It was no wonder, either, as she apparently hadn't gotten hold of his back like she'd intended. Her hands retreated as though they had been burned and she could feel her face working to achieve a similar look.

"Sorry!" she squeaked. And then, waving one arm vaguely up and down from Billy to the chair, "And...sorry. But, really, what are you doing up there?"

Having regained his composure, he arched a brow at her and held up the clock. She'd never seen the arms on this one move before.

"Oh...well that's nice of you. I guess."

"Not exactly," he responded with a sheepish smile before turning to place it back on the wall. "I actually need those back when I leave. They go to my stun r—" he froze and backtracked, "gun. My stun gun. You know, like a...tazer. It's small. Tiny really. Runs on batteries—_those_...batteries...in particular." He jerked his head toward the clock.

"You have a tazer?" Penny asked, amused at his nervous ramblings but choosing to ignore them.

He hesitated a moment before speaking, something about self defense and alleyways and she was mentioned in there somewhere even, but she could only focus on the way her eyes looked everywhere but at his, how forced her smile was beginning to feel. Her gaze darted from the scar on his cheek that was too faint to see from down here but that she knew was there to the air over his left shoulder and then up the line of his neck up to where it met his jaw line—and no. No, that just made things worse, causing another pang of guilt to slice it's way through her. Penny wrapped her arms around herself in response and let her eyes and smile both fall to the floor. She didn't hear the rest of Billy's endearingly skittish answer.

She jumped, startled, when she felt his hand on her shoulder. She closed her eyes and took a calming breath, and he asked her, "Is...everything alright?"

Penny peered up at him from behind the hair partially obscuring her face. _No, _a voice in her head wanted to scream. _I'm in a relationship with someone I don't want and only friends with the person I do. And I don't know if I should try and do anything about it._ She opened her mouth to respond and vaguely wondered what would happen if she just told him the truth. It couldn't be that hard, could it? And what if maybe _he_...

"Yeah, I'm fine. Everything's...fine."

It sounded weak even to her ears.

"Okay," he responded slowly, obviously unconvinced. "Well...if you change your mind..."

And, hand still planted on her shoulder, he leapt from the chair, making to replace the make-shift ladder to it's home near the windows. Penny could practically feel her laundry buddy's presence as he returned; when they walked together to the washers it was hard to ignore the way the blond's arm would occasionally brush hers. Had they always walked so closely? Or was it just her newly surfaced feelings causing her to be hyper-aware of anything involving him?,

"S-So what's with the clock?" Penny asked, cursing herself for the slight stutter. "And the duffel bag?"

"Oh that. Right. I have to leave early today."

"What? Why?" Judging by the slightly taken aback expression on Billy's face, she really had sounded as disappointed as she felt, but he just smiled and went on.

"Well, despite the unfortunate circumstances of five weeks ago, I managed to scrounge up another interview."

"Billy, that's great!" Penny remembered just how put out he had been when that last interview hadn't panned out. She'd assumed since he never mentioned anything about it again, that his dream job had been put on hold. She was glad to hear otherwise. "When is it?"

"I have to leave in about forty minutes. My roommate's going to come by and finish everything. He said that he should be here before I go."

"You know," Penny started, tucking the loose strands of hair behind her ear and looking over to him, "if you had something going on, you didn't have to come today. You could have just told me about it Saturday instead of being in such a rush. I'd have understood."

Billy looked from her to the ground and shrugged, scuffing his shoes against the floor once they'd reached their laundry. "I could have," was his mumbled agreement. Then he reached between his basket and duffel bag and held up a cup of frozen yogurt in front of her. "But then you would have missed out on this for the day."

It was probably the sweetest gesture anyone had ever made toward her.

She swallowed but was unable to quell the fluttering butterflies taking flight in her stomach. "Thank you," she said quietly, taking the cup from him, but for some reason, all Penny wanted to do was cry.

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* * *

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They really didn't do much talking after that. Once their clothes were sorted and cycling, Penny sat atop her washer, picking at her frozen yogurt while musing over her predicament and watching Billy, who was pacing the floor. His gaze constantly alternated from contemplative and serious to anxious as he glanced up at the clock and out the windows.

"I could just watch your things until your roommate gets here if you need to go," she offered at last.

He paused and looked at the clock again. "Nah, I'll give him a few more—oh, and speaking of..." Billy made his way back toward her and leaned his elbow against the coin box on a neighboring machine. "My friend...he kind of has this problem, and it would really mean a lot to him if you could possibly managed to pretend not to notice it?"

Penny blinked. "Um. Okay?" Then a little uncertainly, she added, "What kind of problem?"

Her friend just offered an amused smile. "Oh, you'll know it when you see him. In fact, it'll probably render all my quarters spent today useless. But that's okay." He shrugged. "I'll be back Saturday anyway."

She couldn't fathom what in the world _that_ was supposed to mean, but it seemed to be all the information he was willing to impart with her so, still confused, the red head just took the last bite of her yogurt.

"I didn't know you had a roommate," she said, and it occurred to her that there was a lot she didn't know about him.

His eyes flitted to the clock once more. He shrugged in response. "It never came up. That looks like him, though. Be right back."

Billy hurried past her, but she didn't look to where, turning her attention, instead, to the door where a fairly small man with dark hair and skin was pushing his way inside. Both his shirt and overshirt were soaked through like he had just run across the city in the high noon sun to get here; even from here Penny could tell that his hair was damp and his skin dripping. It was honestly pretty gross. He cast a wary glace around the room, probably very aware of the fact. When he caught sight of her, his eyes darted to her red hair, the cup in her hand, and his expression changed to one of faint recognition. It was a little disconcerting considering the fact she was certain she'd never seen him before. He only hesitated for a second before taking a step toward her.

He didn't make it very far before Billy intercepted him. "Hey, great, you made it! Is everything set?"

Penny slid her way from the washer over the the pair, listening to their exchange with interest.

"You're good to go, Doc," the shorter man said, tossing a jingling wad to the blond. He fumbled with it rather spectacularly before finally pining it against his stomach. Peaking around his shoulder, Penny could see what looked like a set of car keys. Huh. So he drove here. Then why was he so—oh. _Oh._ Billy's warning rang through her head. She had been expecting some kind of physical deformity or even mental incapacity when he'd asked her to ignore it. She saw plenty of that in the homeless community. She could even somewhat handle those kinds of situations. This was new; though it seemed she had heard mention of something like it before.

"Really?" Billy asked, quirking a disbelieving brow at his roommate.

"Sure." The darker man shrugged, and Billy grinned. "Hopefully things go better than the last time around."

"No kidding," Billy scoffed, frowning down at the keys in his hand. He stayed that way, and Penny could only imagine that he was thinking back on what had happened all those weeks ago. She shared an awkward glace with his roommate before the sopping man sent an apologetic shrug her way and took it upon himself to prod Billy along the path of social niceties.

"So...is this her?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Yeah, this is Penny." The taller man stepped aside and waved to her. "Penny, this is my roommate, Moi—" He cut his introduction off, looking suddenly confused. He eyed his roommate with interest and asked, "What exactly _do_ you have other people call you anyways?"

Penny balked slightly, struck at the oddity of the question. The dark haired man didn't seem to find it strange at all, however, and just shook his head a bit before looking at her and answering, "I'm James."

"Really?" It was Billy's voice that sounded. "James? How did I not know that?"

"You never asked."

"No? Huh."

She didn't know what to make of the awkward conversation, so Penny did the only thing she could think of to propel things forward.

"It's nice to meet you, James," she butted in, extending her hand out of polite habit. She almost winced once she realized she'd done it, but she couldn't just take it back. Billy had asked her to pretend to not notice James' situation after all. Judging by the surprised looks on both boys' faces, Penny had exceeded any expectations placed on her. It would be a very bad time to changer her mind.

James regarded her hand with hesitation, and she noticed the surreptitious way he wiped his hand against his jeans before raising it slowly, cautiously, as if expecting her to suddenly remember his unnaturally sweaty state and jerk away at any given moment. It was heartbreaking, really, and made it that much easier to keep from grimacing when their hands finally did meet. Seeing Billy's amused smile as he walked off didn't have her fully convinced it was working, though. But maybe he just thought she was trying to prove some kind of point to him. Maybe he was right. Or maybe she was just reading into things too much again.

When her's and Jame's hands broke free, much of a relief as it was for Penny, she was faced with a new set of problems. Her hand was sopping wet now, and she wasn't sure if she should just ignore it, or if she could somehow managed to slide her hand over her pants without being obvious about it, or if she should just wait until she made it back to her basket and dig around like she was looking for something, or—

"You can wipe your hand if you want to. It won't offend me or anything."

Sheepishly, Penny did as he said, lightly skimming over her thigh and offering up a small, "Sorry."

"Nah," he responded with a small smile. "I know it gets pretty disgusting. Thanks for not making it obvious or anything, though. Usually girls make faces or comments about it. To be honest, I wasn't sure about doing this, but Billy's always said you were really nice."

Penny cracked a smile at that. It was a pleasant surprise to hear that he talked about her, especially considering she'd never heard the slightest mention of the man before her until about half an hour ago. She supposed it made sense, what with the way James had seemed to know who he was looking for when he'd walked in. She wondered if Billy said anything else about her.

"I wish I could say the same," she started in an apologetic tone, attempting to stave off the inevitable silence. "But he never actually mentioned having a roommate before today."

He seemed completely unfazed at the comment. "That's not really very surprising," was all he managed before Billy reappeared by their sides, duffel bag strap over his shoulder.

"Well, guys, I gotta go. Everything's still in the washer, but they should be done soon. It's right next to Penny's." He held up the keys an jingled them. "And thanks again...James." He said the name as though it were the most fascinating discovery in the world before shaking his head and turning to leave.

"Hey, wait a second," Penny said without thinking, halting him with a hand to his shoulder. He did as he was told and turned to her with a questioning look. She swallowed, feeling nervous now that his attention was fully on her. Her eyes traveled from his own to the floor somewhere behind him. She wasn't really sure what kind of closure she'd been hoping to garner from him before he left, so she slid her hand down his arm to take hold of his own. Fingers twitched beneath hers, and she smiled a little before looking back up and giving them a light squeeze. Billy's eyes were glued to their joined hands, and her heart fluttered a bit at the feel of his thumb stroking softly over hers.

"Good luck." The words came out rather more feebly than Penny had intended, but the blond smiled that quirky half smile of his, eyes alight, and said, "Thanks. I'll see you Saturday."

But Saturday seemed such a long way away all of the sudden. She also really hoped she hadn't imagined the seemingly reluctant way he pulled his hand back before vanishing out the glass door.

Things happened. And Penny was done pretending that they hadn't. Accidentally falling for her best friend while she was seeing someone else didn't automatically make her a bad person. But lying to herself and everyone around her probably would.

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* * *

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Things were quiet with Billy gone, quite a funny little happenstance given how quiet he typically was, but now that their common interest was no longer present, she and James had spoken nary a word. When his and Billy's load had finished, Penny had caught the dripping man's dismayed expression after opening the lid. He'd muttered something about Billy being crazy for asking him to do this and that it would be pointless in the end, and she had offered to load them into the dryer for him. He'd backpedaled and said that he wasn't complaining, he could do it, but Penny insisted. So he'd caved and thanked her. That had been pretty much the extent of their camaraderie up til now.

The two of them sat in silence, with nothing more than their shared chore to tie them together. Penny was sitting anyways. James was leaning back against the machine next to her, ignoring the revolted looks hurled his way as he looked aimlessly around the place. It had to be a pretty awful thing to endure. It wasn't something he could hide like she did with her past, or even like Billy could sometimes manage with the bruises and injuries he seemed to frequent. She really ought to say something to him, lest he think that she was only tolerating him for Billy's sake.

That's when it hit her that she had _Billy's roommate_ with her. Who it had taken two months for him to make any mention of. In a little over two weeks he'd heard her story: how her mother had abandoned her and her father when she was a child, how he had succumbed to alcohol when she never returned, eventually forcing Penny to drop out of school and work multiple jobs just to make ends meet when his drunken brawls made him unsuitable for hire. She had told Billy about how none of the jobs seemed to last, the lengths she'd gone through to get her GED and a small scholarship for a nearby college. He knew that during that her father had fallen ill, that she'd had to leave school again to take care of him, inheriting a crushing debt she hadn't known he had carried when he passed away. She'd told him that she'd had nothing to rely on other than the various community charities until she could finally stand on her own two feet again. He knew the reasons why she devoted her time to the homeless. But what did she really know about him?

Oh, it wasn't like she didn't know anything about Billy. He was as pessimistic as they came, no faith in the good of humanity whatsoever. Apparently he was pretty good with a computer, as he'd offered to help her out sometime when she'd made passing mention of some changes she'd like done to the Caring Hands website. He must be fairly handy, too, because Saturday when a fellow laundry person had knocked into Billy and sent his fallen phone sprawling across the laundromat and into a wall with a wince-worthy crack, he'd said it was no big deal, that he could fix it.

Penny had puzzled at the statement before pointing out that the screen had been busted to smithereens. He'd opened his mouth as if to argue, but stopped short, eying her a little uncomfortably before tucking away the ruined phone and conceding defeat. (She assumed it was still out of commission if he was bringing batteries for the wall clock here, and a quick peek now she was thinking about it revealed that he had indeed taken them back as promised.)

Sure, he was sweet, if not a bit awkward, and he made her laugh and feel genuinely cared about. They shared similar ideals about how the world should be, even if they differed on the hows of getting it there. He thought big, all encompassing. She took baby steps, perfectly content with "treating the symptoms". He never mentioned his background or family, though, and so far, he'd presented her with far more mysteries than answers.

But right now she had his roommate. Who knew if she would ever get this opportunity again?

Penny wondered how much James knew about Billy and just how much of that information he would be willing to divulge to her. She settled on something small, harmless that had intrigued her from their earlier conversation.

"So," she started, and her new acquaintance bobbed his head toward her. "'Doc,'" she quoted. "Is that some sort of inside thing between you two?"

His cornered expression lead her to believe that maybe that particular observation wasn't quite as harmless as she'd thought. "Yeah...you could say that."

The silence returned, thick as ever, and Penny cursed her failed interrogation. For a while it seemed like that would be all she'd be able to glean from James. But then, carefully, "I don't know how much he's told you, and he's probably tried to hide it...but Billy's kind of a genius."

Of all the things he might have said, that certainly hadn't been on the list. It wasn't that she didn't think Billy was smart or anything of the like, but it was just one of those funny words that one didn't typically attribute to people they actually knew. It was a title granted by science textbooks to a bunch of dead guys, or by parenting magazines for what a couple's baby could possibly be molded into, or even by the news to the occasional villain who popped in every so often to wreak havoc on the city. It wasn't a term Penny could readily apply to her laundry buddy, and she hoped she didn't sound as skeptical as she felt when she replied, "Genius?"

"Yeah." James shrugged and let his gaze wonder across the room again. "I guess he finished high school when he was fourteen."

Penny's eyebrows shot up in surprise at that. Maybe she was wrong, after all. She didn't know what to say, so she waited for him to pick back up.

"He had a PhD four years after that. He was working on another one a while back, but we're pretty broke, so...but technically he is a doctor."

Implausible as it seemed at first, she could kind of see it when she thought about it. His social awkwardness, even the cynicism made a bit of sense. She may not have finished high school, but that didn't mean she'd never witnessed the cruelty teenagers could impart on one another. In particular those who were different, smarter, younger, impressionable. Maybe the world hadn't been all that kind to Billy either.

"What's his PhD in?" she queried once she'd resurfaced from her thoughts.

James only smirked, and she could see the humor dancing in his eyes as he answered. "You should ask him that."

Penny thought she just might.

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* * *

.

It was late.

Exhausted, the red head made her way over to the bed wearing an oversized shirt and plaid pajama bottoms. She passed by the television set on her way and reached out for the power button, but she stopped short when one of the newscasters mentioned the name "Dr. Horrible". It was the first time his name had appeared anywhere since the bridge incident, so Penny sat on her bed and watched. There wasn't much to it, the transport of some very rare chemical compound gone awry for the second time in as many months, a couple of witnesses, no leads, and a rather perturbed superhero who hadn't caught wind of it in time to stop it.

She shook her head when it finished and stood to turn off the tv and get to sleep for real this time. She had a busy day coming up involving finishing painting several rooms in her shelter. A fair sized group of volunteers had been rounded up for the job, but there was still a lot to be done by the Monday after next.

The tv clicked off, shrouding the room in silence, but an article taped to the wall behind it piqued her interest now that the villain's name was fresh on her mind. The newspaper clipping she'd saved from all those weeks ago. She frowned at it for a moment before taking it down to read over. It was in the last few sentences of the article that she remembered where she'd heard of a condition like Jame's before.

If things had been complicated for Penny earlier that day, it was nothing compared to how they felt now.

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* * *

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**_A/N: Not so much on the rambling this time around. Overtime and all, kind of in a rush, but thanks for reading! :D_**

**_Maybe later, though..._**

**_A/N: EDIT! :DDDDDDD_**

**_Brought my compy to work so that I could spout out a few unimportant nothings on my break, since I have no internet at my apartment anymore! Yay! :D  
_**

**_Now if I can only remember what I was going to say...Oh yeah! Originally, Billy was going to introduce James as 'James'...but after getting the comic and seeing how he introduced himself as 'Moist', I decided that I could really see Billy not looking into things much farther than that. :/ Plus I found it kind of amusing. :) (I really love the tone those comics set for the Dr. H universe. I really, really do.)  
_**

**_Oh, and this is totally the reason I introduced the non-working clock in chapter 3. I came up with the whole battery thing while writing that one. It had an accidental cameo last chapter, too, I think. Because Billy builds his rays to work of of AA's. *nod nod* Probably the reason they never work...ah, the joys of being broke..._**

**_I also vaguely remember wanting to have Penny and James talk about about Billy's 'interview' and Jame's concerns that it wasn't really what Billy thought it was going to be. But it seemed like a pretty good place to cut off. And I didn't know how to get that conversation started. :/ But I like them together. I think they could be really good friends if given the chance. :)  
_**


	6. Blog

**_A/N: So..._**

**_I really did want to get this chapter out within two weeks...but at that point I think I was still stuck on the first couple of paragraphs. Then it was supposed to be finished writing this last Saturday, but I didn't finish it until Sunday morning, and it was supposed to be typed up by the end of Sunday, but my sister was sick and I didn't get much done when I went over to bring her some Sprite, and then it was supposed to be done on Monday, but I had to stay at work a pull a double because one of the phlebotomists called in and they were already short handed and I was their last option, and then by Tuesday I was finally able to log in to my online college classes and found that I was already behind, so I stayed in the library because I don't have my own internet (yeah...I'm taking full time online classes for the semester without any internet of my own. I'm just that cheap. Or broke. Or just plain lacking common sense of any sort, who can tell?), then yesterday went much the same, although I finished typing it up before bed, and now today. Today i flexed out of work really early since it was so slow. But I was waiting for the UPS guy to bring me my books, he always brings stuff I've ordered between 2 and 3 in the afternoon before I'm home, and I really couldn't afford to play the three day game with him. I needed those books by this time last week. He showed up an hour ago!_**

**_So now I'm here. Stalling before actually updating the chapter. Because I'm not sure I want anyone to read it. You know...I always knew it was never exactly going to be an 'epic' ending or anything of the sort, and if it totally sucks, I blame the fact that I've never written and ending before (Whoo! Congrats to me for finishing my first multi-chaptered something ever! :D), and I might be talking it down in a last ditch effort to make it seem at least pretty okay in the end. If nothing else, I'm hoping that at least it's different enough than anything that may have been expected. Or not expected. You know, whichever._**

**_There gets to be a bunch of talky talky at the end. Blegh..._**

**_Stalling..._**

**_Still stalling..._**

**_Alright, I'm done, I've looked through it a gillion times now...it's not changing any..._**

**_Plus the library is closing in five minutes...:/  
_**

**_Enjoy? :)  
_**

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* * *

Chapter 6: Blog

* * *

.

She'd looked everywhere.

Lucky for her, he hadn't made it all that difficult. Research had never really been Penny's strong point, a truth only strengthened by looking at the amount of time it had still taken her to figure it all out.

That Thursday had been the longest day of her life. She'd had places to go, suspicions to clear and, rather unfortunately, more walls than she'd had paint to cover them with, which had set her back a couple of hours. Much as Penny would have liked to call it quits early, she'd only had that group of volunteers for the day. Plus the beds and furniture were coming in over the weekend. With only a week and a half until the shelter opened, her own personal anxieties would have to wait; for the first time in years, she was annoyed by that fact.

Eventually, though, the red head had rushed her crew out with hurried thanks and farewells, locked up, and headed straight to the library. She'd rifled her way through years' worth of old newspapers looking for anything—pictures, severity of his crimes. She'd been curious about it since the van incident anyways, and she wondered why she hadn't thought to do this sooner.

Overall, her findings hadn't been particularly impressive. Bank robberies, theft at retailers. Something about exploding parking meters, that, while never proven, had been attributed to the doctor. Several minor disturbances akin to what had happened with the bridge dedication. No injuries save for his own. No fatalities. Penny found these details to be the most relieving.

The pictures she'd found were all terrible. In spite of that, it hadn't taken much to recognize one of the men. Undisguised, small stature, dark hair and skin, and the sheen of moisture glossed over his skin evident even in the black and white of the newspaper photo. He didn't appear in many of the shots, and Penny had only met him once, but despite the shoddy camera work, she knew that it was him. It was James. She was certain of it.

She'd had to sit back for a moment after that revelation. Having her suspicions confirmed was a little bit taxing mentally. She and James had gotten along so well once they'd finally gotten to talking; and he'd seemed like such a genuinely nice guy. She supposed that one could never really tell. Which drove her attention right back to the man making the headlines.

No matter how she squinted or tilted the photos, she couldn't make anything out. The lab coat, gloves and boots didn't tell her anything about the man donning them, and any picture where his face was visible was shot from too far away, the goggles strapped to his forehead making it impossible to see passed the poor quality. Either that or he was being held aloft or detained some other way by Captain Hammer. (Some of those shots made her stomach churn unpleasantly, as it was obvious just how far out of line the hero had gone before they were taken.) But without a close-up of his face, they were all useless.

But maybe she was just getting ahead of herself here. Maybe Billy didn't know anything about his roommate's double life, much less take part in it. He had had to ask James how to introduce him to her yesterday after all. But then there were all the things James had told her the day before: _"Billy's kind of a genius"_, _"Technically he is a doctor"_. They were so painfully obvious, and yet they could be entirely coincidental. Penny just didn't know.

She'd taken to the internet from there, with no more help from the articles posted online. Not until she'd stumbled across an interesting looking site in the last five or so minutes of the library's open hours. Jotting down the address, she'd headed straight for her office at the homeless shelter-to-be. It was already furnished for her: computer, desk, chair and a working internet connection. And that's where she'd stayed. All night. Watching, listening, thinking, and eventually waking up to a slightly drenched mouse pad, that achingly familiar face still plastered on the monitor.

.

* * *

.

Penny stepped out of the frozen yogurt shop with her laundry basket balanced against her hip, paper sack hanging from her elbow, and a laptop bag slung about her shoulders. She'd left early, and the yogurts would likely me melted by the time she and...Billy...got to them. It gave her a little extra time to think about what she would have to do. A few days ago, this one had seemed like too long of a wait, but now that it was here, she wished that there was more time. There'd been no time to figure things through with all of the work still to be done on the building. And she didn't think she could pretend not to know in order to stall for time.

All in all, Penny didn't feel nearly as upset as she thought she probably ought to upon discovering that while dating the hero, she had inadvertently fallen for the villain. It was just the kind of crazy, upside down hand she could see the world dealing her. He robbed banks, built weapons and was an all around public nuisance. All were things of the sort of nature that she opposed, but she had watched every last blog entry of his over the years, and she couldn't deny that it was all just so...Billy.

He made some sense, in a really warped, misguided sort of way. Not that she agreed with his methodologies, heavens no, but in Penny's mind, his intentions made all the difference. He called himself a villain. She disagreed. She didn't find the self-proclaimed title very fitting in the least. He wanted to fix an oppressive system for the better, and she couldn't think of many things that were less evil than that. He had far too many morals for a bad guy.

He might have made a pretty good hero.

That thought brought her to the one thing on his blog that truly had upset her: he didn't belong in the Evil League of Evil.

In her conversation with James Wednesday, Penny had brought up Billy's excitement for his prospective job and how much she hoped he got it, that she felt kind of bad about how she'd achieved her dream job at last while he was still struggling to get a foothold into his. James had been silent for a while before taking her by surprise and expressing the exact opposite interest. He avoided any details on what it was that his roommate was doing, only that Billy was good at seeing the big picture but often missed the small details at work within. He worried that the job wouldn't be what Billy had made it out in his mind to be and that he would be stuck, disappointed, and thoroughly miserable if he got it. Now that she understood, Penny was inclined to agree with her henchman acquaintance.

She saw what he was getting at, that getting into Bad Horse's group would give him the power to set things straight. But that wouldn't happen. No one else in that circle of most dangerous villains wanted things set straight. They thrived off of the misery and pain they caused. The more corrupt the system was, the easier their own pleasures were to obtain. Going by what she knew of the easily flustered, sweet, idealistic man she did laundry with every week as well as what she had seen from his equally blustering and awkward video blog counterpart, he wouldn't stand a chance. And if he somehow did manage to survive it, his good intentions most certainly would not.

Penny cared too much to let either of these things happen. She just had to make him see what she saw, and with the laundromat door looming not far ahead of her, she still didn't know how. She might just have to wing it. So the red head sighed, frowned at the glass, and with that final thought threw open the door and strode her way inside.

.

* * *

.

It was a low whistle from her left that finally caused Penny to blink herself back to reality. She'd been fighting with the slow laptop for several minutes now, trying to connect it to the neighboring bookstore's wireless. She didn't really know what she was doing. Computers weren't something she'd had all that much experience with in her life. Maybe it was something she could look into once she started getting paid, though.

"Looks like someone's really moving up in the world."

Penny smirked at the voice and roller her eyes. "Not quite," she replied shoving a melted yogurt into the hands of the blond man leaning casually against the adjoining washing machine.

"I'm still working for free until the shelter opens. This is just borrowed."

Billy peered around the open lid and raised his brow slightly before turning back to the cup of cream in his hand. "Nice cursor," he said dully. "Is it the boyfriend's?"

The red head turned back to the screen wondering what had given it away, when she noticed the cursor. It hadn't really caught her attention before now, but there it was, a hammer pounding away as it signaled the laptop's attempt to load whatever it was that she had just clicked on.

"Yeah," she responded with a cautious look his way. She hadn't missed the underlying contempt at his mention of Captain Hammer. She'd noticed it in the past, the way his jaw tightened and his eyes went blank on those few occasions her boyfriend came up in conversation, but she'd never really focused on it before. It was another one of those things she'd discovered Thursday night. It had been overshadowed by so many other things, though.

Penny was flattered, really, to see just how far back it was when he first mentioned her in his blog. It couldn't have been all that long after she'd started using this laundromat, having finally built up her finances enough to rent her run down apartment down town on her own. Come to think of it, she had run into someone her first day coming in. Clothes scattered everywhere, her profuse apologies, some mumbling from the other party, but that was all she remembered. She never did get a look at the other person, she was so embarrassed at having knocked into him. Penny squinted over at her laundry buddy who was attempting to eat the liquid yogurt with his spork without a single question as to why it was no longer frozen. Had that been him all those months ago?

Who knew how long he'd been attempting to talk to her without her ever noticing? And what were the odds that once they finally had begun to speak that she had already been taken by his arch-nemesis? She couldn't have known. Their first conversation had been a complete bust. Even so, Penny couldn't help but feel guilty for the grief she'd caused him. He didn't show it to her face, but she'd seen it on his blog. It was kind of nice to know for a fact that he felt the same way, though.

"I told him it was for work. It's pretty terrible, though. I think it was some cheap promotional gift for advertising some company or another...So how did Wednesday go?"

The change of subject visibly brightened Billy's mood.

"Without a hitch," he grinned up at her. "I may have to do one or two more, but I think they'll end up taking me."

Penny's smile flickered away some when he said that.

"Congratulations," she managed to force out, hoping the computer in her lap would find it in itself to connect sometime soon. "That's...great to hear."

"Thanks," he said, too excited to notice her strained enthusiasm. "And thanks again about Mo-James the other day. He really didn't want to come. But he said he was glad I talked him into it."

Penny swallowed, her chest constricting. He really wasn't suited for the League.

"He...he's a good guy," she answered, noticing the amused lilt to his lips at her comment. How many times in the past had she said something ironic like that? She couldn't remember them all, but that seemingly random twist of the mouth had found a place on his face several times before. She'd always felt like she was missing something. At least now she knew she wasn't being paranoid. "You should bring him around more often."

"Hm. I'll let him know you said that."

They went silent after that, Billy having given up on scooping up his extra soft serve with the spork in favor of sipping it from the styrofoam instead, Penny's still sitting untouched beside her. Their baskets remained loaded and their machines empty, and the red head wondered if he really even needed to be here at all. Or if he was just wasting his money to be here because she was? Even in the silence and with his liquified dessert, he seemed perfectly content just to be there. With her. Midday on a Saturday.

It was sweet. She'd never had anyone who was happy to merely be in her presence before. It wasn't long before she found herself aiming a dopey grin his way. After a while, he noticed it, too, and Penny could feel it widen further as his endearing nerves kicked up at the attention.

"S-so," the blond stammered, clearing his throat and blinking a few times as he set the cup down on his machine, very nearly upsetting it in the process with his jittery hands, "d-did you really borrow that for work?"

"Not...not exactly," came Penny's sheepish admission, and she tucked some loose hair behind her ear. Looking back to the screen, it seemed the computer had finally taken to one of the networks when she hadn't been paying attention. "It seemed like a believable cover." He eyed her with approval through the corner of her eye. "I actually just wanted to show you something I found the other day. It kind of made me think of you. I thought you might appreciate it."

She caught it briefly, that split second of apprehension in his eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, his expression left blank in it's wake.

"Oh?" His voice sounded cautious.

"Yeah. Let me show you."

Penny finished typing in the address and, making sure the volume was low, hit the play button on the first video on the page.

That's when Billy's elbow slipped violently from the washer at Dr. Horrible's first words, sending his roll of quarters to crash to the ground. He gaped at the screen in panic, arms sprawled over the empty machine as though it were the only thing keeping him from collapsing along with his scattered change.

"Balls," he choked out weakly.

"What?" Penny smiled, amused.

"I-I, uh...i-it's just that...I—" blue eyes tore themselves away from the laptop in the midst of his struggle for words to take note of the mess on the floor. "Oh, wow, look at that..." And thus he threw himself, literally, into the task of gathering his laundry money. From her perch atop of her own machine, Penny could see just how badly his hands were shaking, hear the rattle of the coins as he fumbled about for them in blind panic. "Th-that's kind of...I dunno. I don't really see it."

She shook her head and set the computer aside. "No?" she queried, easing herself to the floor to help him. "I do. He's always so cynical, and pretty funny sometimes, though I don't think he really means to be. Seems like he wants to get things straightened out. He has some very...interesting ideas on how to do it, too. It's actually kind of admirable."

Billy's head shot up, his voice significantly steadier than before when he asked, "You do?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "You know...he saved my life once." Her statement was punctuated by the clinging of more quarters against the floor. "I never did get the chance to thank him."

They resumed their hunt for Billy's change in silence for a little while before Penny gave in and said, "Thank you."

"Huh?"

She smiled at him knowingly and tried again, "For saving me from the van."

The panic returned to his features, and Penny thought he would try and deny it. She really hoped he wouldn't. But after what seemed like an eternity, the busted villain sighed, his shoulders hunching over in defeat as he reached for another coin. "It was...nothing."

"I'm sorry."

He paused, his eyes popping up to hers in confusion, and the red head shrugged.

"I feel like I should have realized it sooner. Obviously, I'm not very good at searching for people."

Billy let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "I don't think that was really the point," he said, standing to drop his recovered change atop his washer. He looked back down on her, that amused glint still in his eye. "Well, just don't mention it to anybody. It doesn't look too great on my resume."

Oh right. That. Penny frowned slightly, reaching up her hand filled with his loose coins. He took them from her with a small thank you.

"Don't join the League," she blurted.

Billy froze, crinkling his brow down at her, his mouth parting. She didn't give him an opportunity to say anything thing, though before she leaned back against her heals.

"Listen, Billy," she tried to explain, looking about the room for inspiration, and gesturing with her hands to find the words to express her thoughts. There wasn't much to look at; she'd chosen these machines tucked way back in the empty corner of the laundromat today for this very reason, but the whirring sounds of the dryers lining the wall, the barely audible words drifting from the laptop, and the comforting smell of fabric softener seemed to help her find a starting point.

"I don't agree with you. I don't believe that people are inherently bad, that there's no hope for them. I don't think that bad news is the only kind that people take seriously to make them want to change things. I don't understand everything you do, and I'm willing to try, but Billy...the League...you aren't like those people." He bristled at this statement, clearly offended, but Penny continued without pause. "Those people are really dangerous. They don't want things fixed. They want the corruption and chaos and destruction for the sake of causing it. They don't save nobodies from careening vans, or genuinely care about their henchmen, or even turn down showing up a wannabe hero because kids might get hurt. They don't care about anyone but themselves, but you do, Billy. And I don't want that to change."

He softened a little bit at those words. "I won't change, Penny," he assured her. "I just need to get in. If I could do that, maybe overthrow Bad Horse, then the League would be mine. They'd have to do what I—"

"But what if you can't? And even if you did, how many awful things would they force you to do before that happened?" Penny interrupted, exasperated. "What are they wanting just for you to get in?"

The blond's jaw snapped shut, and he looked off to the side. So it really was that bad then? She'd thought so. She just shrugged and shook her head, feeling emotionally drained.

"Just stop...stop pretending that the League is the only way you can make a difference. It's not. You have fans who support what you do now. You have James." A beat, and then, "You have me."

He turned his eyes back to hers. "I thought you just said you were against everything I stood for?"

With a shrug, Penny answered, "If it's a choice between you now and you in the League, I'll take the first one. Lesser of the two evils and all."

Billy scoffed, that affronted look adorning his features yet again. "Gee, thanks..."

"Sorry."

The red head looked down. She picked at the stray threads in the frayed holes of her jeans.

"I'll do it, too," she said quietly. "Captain Hammer..."

She tugged at one thread in particular until it's length far surpassed the others, cinching the material a little way up her thighs.

"I'm not happy with him," she admitted. "I haven't been for a long time...maybe even ever. But then the shelter...have you noticed how he's actually been constructive lately? Cleaning up the streets and all? Well, you're not the only one that's been fooling yourself."

And with that, Penny sighed and looked up, unable to gauge the blank expression on her laundry buddy's face. He held out a hand to help her up, and she took it without hesitation. Billy let out a breath. He ran a nervous hand through his hair, and with a tentative look said, "It's not that easy. The League doesn't exactly take kindly to people changing their minds about going in."

"We'll think of something," she said, turning so as to lean against her own machine. He smiled. "It won't be easy for me either. I don't know...if I break up with him now, he might find a way to sabotage the shelter. Maybe not, since it's earned him so much publicity. They want him to speak at the opening ceremony, though. Who knows what he might say?" Penny shrugged again. "But if I wait until after, the press will go wild. I'll be the whore who left the city hero as soon and she'd gotten what she wanted from him. I'd probably lose my job just for the headlines. But I guess at least I wouldn't have to wonder whether or not the shelter would open."

They stood in silence for a while after she voiced her concerns, just looking out over the rest of the laundry goers for the day.

"You know. If you're really worried about the opening ceremony," Billy said, peeking over at her slightly, "I know a guy. He kind of specializes in disrupting those kinds of things. I think he'd be able to have something together by then."

Penny smirked. She turned her head over to him slightly and asked, "You just want me away from him sooner than later, don't you?"

He didn't react like she had anticipated. There was no spluttering or blushing or blinking or stammering of vehement denials, nothing of the like. He didn't even look at her, just shrugged and looked down at the floor, his hands shoved into hid hoodie pocket. Quietly, he said, "Just a thought."

She felt her smile soften a bit, and she looked back out to the hustle and bustle of the laundromat.

"I'd really appreciate it. Tell him to name his price."

The red head caught Billy cast a hopeful glance her way from the corner of her eye. He opened his mouth, but stopped himself short. He shook his head and slumped back against his washer, looking miserable. So he still wouldn't do it then. It was disappointing but not particularly surprising. She'd just have to give it a go.

"S-So...I know this girl." Penny could feel her friend's confused eyes on her as she toyed with the hem of her shirt. "She's dating a guy. He's a real big shot, everyone knows who he is, but he's kind of a—oh, what was it? A...a meat head?" She cocked a brow at him, an amused smile taking over her face as she remembered their conversation from forever ago, he nodded at her as one twitched onto his own face. "You know the type. The I-don't-work-out-I'm-just-like-this type?" Or something along those lines, anyways. She pretended to flex an arm to emphasize the point. Billy snickered. She went on.

"Well, she's been thinking about dumping him for a while, but was worried about his reaction. She's gotten over that now, thankfully. Anyways..." Penny paused for a moment, taking the time to pluck a piece of fuzz from her jeans, "she has this other friend, her best friend really, and lately she's realized that she really likes him, but she's been stuck with the other guy the whole time. They're almost complete opposites, this girl and her friend, but they get along real great. Now that she's leaving her boyfriend, though, she isn't sure she should take the chance with her friend _because_ they're such good friends already." She whipped around to look at him. "What do you think?"

He looked stunned at her confession, but that didn't keep the giddy smile from his face. "She should go for it," he replied fervently. Then, backtracking. "Or at least let him know. Maybe...they could talk through the rest of it later? Somewhere?"

Penny smiled at the invitation, and nodded. Before he could react, she was up on her toes, a fistful of his shirt in her hand and her lips on his. At first he was too surprised to do anything, his arms floundering uncertainly in the air around her. Eventually, though, he calmed down to the point of kissing her back with surprising earnest, his hands finally finding purchase on the curve of her waist.

Kissing Billy was unlike anything Penny had ever felt before, and it had nothing to do with his skill or lack thereof. Given her past luck in relationships, she assumed that was a good thing. She imagined it was the difference between trying too hard to keep someone by her side versus knowing that they already wanted to be there.

But there was still one question left unanswered.

Penny pulled back, smiling a little as Billy moved right along with her, unwilling to let the moment end yet.

"So, Doctor," she said, grinning at his pleasantly dazed expression once she had managed to part lips with him. "What's your PhD _really_ in?"

He actually had the decency to look sheepish when she asked that. "Heh, that, yeah...well, technically the paper says "mechanical engineering". But be honest, it's not really as catchy, is it? Moist keeps telling me to find a new catch phrase, but I dunno. What do you think?"

She pursed her lips and eyed him warily as she prepared to give the villain her first piece of career advice.

"I think we'll come up with something."

He deflated a little bit then, looking rather put out by her rejection.

Penny just laughed and shook her head. Then she kissed him again.

.

* * *

.

**_A/N: Heh...'I know a guy'. Thank you, Barney. Ever since my HIMYM kick, I've known that I would borrow that line from you._**

**_I really don't know what else to say about this one except that, 'Wow, it's over.'_**

**_I kind of have a couple of other one shot ideas and a kind of afterward story for after this one. Well...I have a title and premise for the kind of afterward story anyway. Ideas, not so much._**

**_But, I thank you all for your feedback during this story. It's really kept me going knowing there are people who actually care about, regardless of my thoughts as to whether or not it's worth it. Y'all have been awesome! And I hope that you all enjoyed the ending to it as well! :)_**

**_And this is me stalling to hit the 'save' button. Even though you guys will have already gotten through the chapter by then..._**


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